Armored Core: Lunar Battle

Chapter 7: Plus

"What could be sooo importaint that you need to smash your way through the Nest to find me?" Pilan stared at the AC identified as Zeo Streak Alpha, the very same AC that was supposedly destroyed before her mother died within the origional Zeo Streak.

"You are," the pilot responded. Pilana claimed to be the Nine Breaker of Mars, but records show that Pilana had died defending a colony during the Martian Colony Massacre. "You must learn who you really are, and I am here to see if you are good enough."

"Good enough for what?" she asked in an irritated tone.

"To fight the human plus," Pilana responded, "and to take down anyone who would stand in your way." Alpha lifted its Karasawa, reingaging its battle mode. "Best way to know if you can is to defeat one. You must defeat me."

"Wait a minute," Pilan yelled as her AC retaliated to the agressive act by arming its own Karasawa. "Your are a plus?"

"That I am," Pilana responded, boosting to the side. "I am Pilana, Nine Breaker of Mars," she stated as she fired her weapon at II, who flew in the air to evade the shot. It wizzed by and hit a building, glass shattering and concrete flying as it hit. "Born near the end of the Murakumo Era in a labratory, with all of my genes augmented before I was even born." Pilan aimed and fired a shot at Alpha, who evaded it just as easily by ducking to the side. "Raised by the doctors of Murakumo with an understanding of my puropse. An understanding to what I am, a human weapon." She appeared on the other side of a building, firing a trio of shots at Pilan. She dodged them with ease, but a segment of her armor got skinned by the third shot, causing a mild burst of laser to explode on it. "I was among the last of Murakumo's Human Plus specimens. I was raised and trained to fight inside any machine, completely cut off from the outside world." Pilan fired five more shots at Alpha, just grazing its leg with two shots. Alpha then armed its ground torpedos and fired, which were intercepted by Pilan's Hound intercept system. "I became the youngest Raven on earth, shortly after Murakumo and Chrome's reign were replaced by that of Emeraude, Balena, and Zeo Matrix. I was unstoppable, I couldn't be defeated on earth."

The two ACs started to shift their battle location a bit, but Pilan knew that she couldn't allow Alpha to escape. She tried to keep them going back to the center of sector 216 to avoid dragging the fight out, and to prevent the militia from coming in to fight and lose their lives to take this opponent down. Luckily, it seemed that Pilana didn't want to be disengaged from Pilan at all. "Moving to Mars granted me opportunities that I couldn't possibly encounter while I stayed on this pile of dirt. I was still undefeated as I defeated the Ravens in the arena and as I accepted missions for the warring corporations." The two fired even more torpedos at each other, which failed to hit either one of them for their reflexes and their countermeasures. "I battled Leos Klein, the leader of the Frighteners, and all of his subordinates." The Frighteners were once a group of veteran pilots from earth who attempted to control mars. "Klein had his allies and the Disorder units from Mars's past at his command, but they weren't strong enough to stop me." She armed her laser cannon from her shoulder and started to fire on Pilan while on the move, a trademark note that she is what she claimed to be. "I defeated Klein and all that stood in my way. He was also a Plus, and the only person who ever got close to defeating me in battle." Pilan evaded the cannon as well as she could, firing her Karasawa at the evasive Alpha and getting close for a sword strike. The twin Moonlights clashed as Alpha parried the strikes with her own, resulting in both ACs taking mild damage.

"I eventually found love in a fellow Raven and had you. Half of your blood is that of Murakumo's pet project. You are a Human Plus. NOW FIGHT LIKE ONE!" Alpha boosted back and fired another laser cannon shot, which Pilan barely avoided by ducking behind a building. Glass exploded as the heated beam passed far too close to the building's side.

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Tanja boosted for the elevator shaft in an attempt to get down into Layered and fight off the AC that had entered there moments before. She was being chased by Neo Core's MTs, but those were now turning back towards the fight or were engaged by other Ravens. "TANJA!!! LOOK OUT!!!!" Before she had a chance to figure out what was meant by Reaper's words, her AC was hit in the blade arm by a laser cannon. The shot took the arm off at the shoulder, the reminants twitching on the ground as sparks erupted from the fresh wound the AC had taken.

"Enemy AC Oblivion confirmed," Hunter III stated. Tanja immediately turned around to face her target. She looked up in time to see him open fire with his laser again, and it took off her rockets before she could react.

"How interesting to see you again, little Raven," Oblivion spoke. "Now I can finish the job I had started with your partner." He fired his laser again, but Tanja was ready this time. She boosted to the side, evading the shot completely. She then armed her Karasawa and fired upon her target. He evaded the shot with ease. "I see you have a few new toys, but that's all they are compared to me."

"We'll just have to see about that," Tanja responded, firing her Karasawa several more times at the target. He evaded six of the seven shots, whereas the one shot scored him in the arm mildly. He dropped to the ground and fired his machine gun, which started to penetrate her core as she returned fire.

"Do you honestly believe that you actually stand a chance with all of that?" he taunted. "Your way out of your league, and you will die for getting in my way." The two ACs circled around each other, each firing shots when they saw a chance to do so. Tanja's generator was beginning to suffer as she fired her EO, Karasawa, and her boosters in an attempt to stay locked onto Oblivion and causing as much damage as she could possibly do.

Nick saw as the fight broke out between the two Ravens, and he knew this fight wouldn't end well. He looked back at the other Ravens, who were starting to wane under the attack. Several of the ACs weren't properly equipped for long term battle, either due to a lack of armor or a lack of rounds against large numbers of enemies. Those that tried to retreat for a reload back in Layered were shot down immediately by the enemy. Many more weren't adept at using the blades they had added to their ACs, and close quarters wasn't for a greenhorn against these MTs, whose skill matched those of any Raven even thought the units were nowhere near as well armored.

He saw as Big Shot and her Hellbringer opened fire with everything she had. Any enemy that got too close to her was torched by her flamethrower, while she attacked with her other weapons at any target that was in the way. She used her thrusters sparingly as her EO and guns fired away at the target, the powerful blasts easily wiping out a single MT with relative ease. She also used the Intensify part that Tanja loaned her to fire her stronger cannons with her bipedal machine. Devil's Painbringer stayed in the rear with the other tank models, for they weren't capable of overcoming the manuverable MTs if they got too close. The firepower they fielded surpassed most of the standard ACs in battle, and thier position allowed supply trucks to sit behind the firing line to keep them loaded and to reload any standard AC that managed to return for replenishing. So far, only the tanks got these much needed supplies. Demon and Sprint were leading a squad of the fastest ACs available on hit and run tactics, getting close to inflict damage and getting away to aviod taking too much damage in return. They were getting pretty sucessful, but the MTs were starting to organize themselves for the next possible run. Many more were in the thick of the fight, explosions erupting everywhere as ACs and MTs alike were taken down. Ace had fired everything he had until his rounds were depleted, in which case he chose to jeteson his now useless weapons and anti missiles to favor speed for his dreaded Moonlight. The situation made it impossible to fire any Titan missiles into the fray, for the resulting explosion would claim allies and enemies alike.

Nick checked his ammo stores, the fighting had barely used up half of his mahcine gun's rounds, but his missiles were dangerously low. Only his laser cannon was fully armed, and he had only one target for that. He turned back and boosted towards Tanja to assist her, taking out any enemy that dared get in his way. Several enemies deliberately got in his way, but a quick slice with his Moonlight got them down on the ground in no time.

Tanja stopped her boosters and deactivated her EO, her generator wasn't able to take the three energy consuming items anymore. She swithched her rifle for her missiles, which were still functioning for being a solid round weapon. She forced Hunter to watch her target for the lock while she continued evasive maneuvers. Oblivion had swapped his gun for his gernade launcher, which missed as Hunter ducked left and right. When her two missiles got their lock, she opened fire as Oblivion fired yet another gernade. The one missile and the gernade connected, creating an explosion that hid the other missile from both sides of it. Oblivion was nicked in the other shoulder by the missile, which shredded some armor off upon impact. Tanja looked at the cloud of smoke that now clouded her vision, searching for her target and scanning with her head mounted radar. She never saw Oblivion arm his laser cannon and fire where he believed she was, which struck Hunter III hard. The cockpit flashed as the laser impacted and the internal lighting flickered from it. The side view screens and radar console exploded as well, showering Tanja with broken glass. She glared at her front visor and her radar, both of which were showing her static. Warning indicators popped up on her secondary screens, which now weren't showing all the information she needed anymore. Her reminants counter was offline, immediate target data was gone, and the AC could only identify where it was damaged and the fact that it had weapons on certain locations. Her AC couldn't identify what was namely damaged and what the hell it was holding. "Hunter, what's our status?" The computer emitted static, a bad sign. "Hunter, respond!" More static greeted her, followed by laughter from Oblivion.

"What's the matter, Raven? Can't get any help from your AC computer, perhaps?" The sounds of movement was heard within the cockpit. Tanja tried to find the source, but she still couldn't see a thing while Oblivion continued laughing. "If I'm not very much mistaken, your vision, radar, and data display are all dead. That's to be expected when your AC's head has been blasted clean off." Tanja looked at her damage display, which showed the block that represented the head was all red.

'That means that only the FCS is working, but that has limited function abilities with the rest of the AC,' she thought to herself. 'I can still shoot, but I'll have no clue as to whether I hit or not.' She looked at her downed screen, seeking anything in the mess that could help. "If you know my plight so well, then I am no longer a threat to you."

"Don't think that you will get off that easy. I finished off your friend the other day, and I have every intention of having you meet him." He stepped forward, preparing his strike on Hunter III.

Nick saw this from his distance away. He was too far away to even fire his laser cannon, so he charged in and took out as many MTs as there were in his way. "GET OUT OF MY WAY!!" he yelled, slicing another few in half with his Moonlight. Once the immediate area was clear, he armed his laser cannon for a hopeful shot. Before he could fire, his back was attacked by another MT. He pivoted his AC's torso to the MT, right arm extended, and loaded its core with MG-800 rounds. 'I will NOT let him kill her,' he thougth, boosting closer to Oblivion for a better shot.

Meanwhile, Tanja watched her screen, and barely spotted a lock with her messed up vision. "Guess I go out fighting, then." She activated her EO and fired her laser rifle at Oblivion, catching him off guard. A few shots got his AC square in the core, while others scraped armor off segments of his unit.

"YOU BITCH!!!" He sliced her gun arm off and shot down both EOs with his machine gun. He then knocked her AC flat down on the ground and thrusted his blade into the radiator. Tanja's left side screens exploded as the sudden heat of the laser blade speared the radiator and tapped the screens. Glass pelted her left side as she tried to get her AC back up. It was no use, for the missing radiator would allow the heat to accumulate within her AC, the same way Nick lost Deathsythe VII. "Now you'll die nice...and slow." He then thrusted his blade into the generator, causing it to try and power the radiator. The heat within the unit began to skyrocket, and Tanja was starting to feel the heat. "Are you dead yet, Raven?"

"Not...yet..." The missiles on her back fired into his shoulder, damaging the joint. In anger, he stood up and fired a gernade straight into the core, severely denting the angled body and sending the interior heat through the roof. The heat was overwhelming, the cockpit was now beginning to reach four-hundred degrees. Tanja started to struggle to stay awake

"Your friend ain't here to help you this time, so burn in he..." A sudden shot speared through the air, claiming his gernade launcher and a segment of his armor. "WHAT?!?" Oblivion's Skyeye turned to meet the Misteye of a black and white AC, whose color scheme looked familiar. Its laser cannon had vapor issuing off the barrel, for it had fired it while standing. Its left hand held the cannon up, as if supporting he weapon into position.

"I'm not in hell, nor can I ever be in hell." The AC stated. "That is because I am hell's hand, its warrior of death." The Misteye gowed red. "I am the Grim Reaper, and the only one going to hell today is you." He ignited his moonlight and pointed it at Oblivion. "Now you fight me again, and my Deathsythe VIII!"

"Ah, the arrogant ace of this worthless planet. So, you didn't die." He smirked within his cockpit as he turned his AC to the newcomer. "Time to finish what we started, then."

"Your on," Nick replied, activating his EO and machine gun as he charged in, with Oblivion chattering his machine gun in retaliation.

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Pilan forced her AC behind another building as Alpha fired another round of missiles, exploding on the surface of the wall. "Great time for my intercept to run out," she muttered as her radar tracked Alpha's movement. It was heading around the corner to attack her again. That either meant that one of her lasers were armed now, or else she was planning on cutting Pilan in half. She tapped a control and felt her AC drop to a knee, the laser cannon unfolding and resting on her shoulder. Her AC instinctively raised its left hand to hold the cannon up into position. She locked onto Alpha from her side of the building and followed her until she boosted around the corner. Pilan fired the laser, but Alpha jumped up at the last possible second. It shot outside the battle area and scored a hit on a building in the next sector. Pilan panicked and forced her AC backwards, but the cannon was preventing her from moving until it could fold up again. "Dammit, not now!"

"You have just made your fatal error," Pilana declaired, her AC appearing before Pilan with immense speed. "Prepare to die!" She ignited her blade weapon and charged in towards Pilan, intent on cutting the AC in half. Pilan saw the attack and didn't realize as her hand forced her AC to dodge. Zeo Streak II narrowly evaded the blade by ducking to its left, getting a nice scar on the sleek core. Pilan then attacked with her sword, which was also evaded with ease as Alpha jumped up. The two units targeted each other with their Karasawas and fired the reminants of their rounds into each other with ease. Both ACs started to smoke from the damage they had taken from the few nicks they suffered and the full blown barrage they had inflicted onto each other. They both backed away and armed their laser cannons. Pilan, unfortunately, was forced onto her knee again from the weapon, and she knew the next shot would be lethal. She again didn't notice that her hands were pressing on the controls, and she was surprised when she noticed that her AC stopped dropping down alot faster than before. She had no time to ponder it, for she now had to worry about the laser cannon that was just fired. Reacting purely on instinct, she forced the AC to boost to the side to evade the shot. The AC responded and moved aside with the cannon unfolded, which shattered the windows of the building Pilan chose for cover. She then jumped up and activated her overboost, which charged up as she neared the top of the building. She was propelled forward while losing altitude, but she cleared the building and flew towards Alpha with the laser cannon resting on her AC's shoulders. She fired the weapon and hit the core right where the generator was, destroying the remaining bit of stability the unit had left and shutting it down at the same time. Zeo Streak II landed behind Alpha's remains.

Pilan's eyes were wide open as she tried to understand what the hell happened. The action she had performed was not something that could have been done by a normal pilot, and it was done so flawlessly and fast. She couldn't make sense of what she had done, but knew that she had defeated her opponent. "Well...done...Pilan.." she heard on her speakers, but the voice on the comms didn't sound like before. "I...know that....your power....is unlocked....now." Pilan looked at Alpha, which had crouched down into its defeated stance. "There..'s...just...one...thing....left." Pilan's eyes widened in terror as the AC lifted itself off of the ground, struggling to stay up. It was like if someone with broken legs or no energy left was struggling to move just a little more. It turned towards her AC and flashed its visor. Her systems suddenly froze, preventing her from doing anything. "You must...now...handle...your her..it..age." The voice sounded like Pilana was dying within the cockpit, but her AC continued to move right towards Zeo Streak II. It got up close to Pilan's AC and touched the EGRET with its hand. Suddenly, Pilan saw visions within her mind's eye. Visions that weren't from her memories at all, and far too much for her to handle.

'WH..What's HAPPENIG?'she thought to herself as these images flooded her head. 'WHAT IS THIS?' Both ACs suddenly dropped to their knees in front of each other, with Zeo Streak Alpha and Zeo Streak II opening their hatches. Pilan looked into the cockpit of Alpha, half expecting to see her mother's body within. Instead, there was... "Noone's in it??" The images continued to swim through her head, and she was starting to lose it with her mind. They got to the point in which her body could only do one thing, make her pass out in her cockpit.

The MTs arrived to the sector minutes later and spotted the two ACs powered down in the middle of the area. They immediately moved the two ACs to the garage and sent Pilan to the infirmary, who was out like a light.

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Oblivion looped behind DeathsytheVIII, trying to get a good shot with the laser cannon into the rear armor of the core. The unit wouldn't allow him to stay there, however, because it kept trying to loop around just to keep Oblivion in its sights, its EO active to fire on the Plus when any sort of lock is achieved. Both units were pretty battered up with bullet holes in their armors and battle damage from their previous enemies. If either one of them were to finish off the other, then one of them would have to deviate from their attack pattern and make a bold move.

Deathsythe boosted the opposite direction after continuing the circle for several revolutions and fired his laser at Oblivion, which managed to skim across the armor of its gun arm as it made a desperate attempt to evade. Oblivion armed his own laser cannon and fired right at Deathsythe's leg, creating a hole in the unit's shin and forcing it down. "You're no match for me, earthling," Oblivion spat into the communication. He boosted toward the crippled AC and ignited his blade, preparing to spear the new model right in the cockpit. He started to make the stab when his unit took damage from behind, disabling his laser cannon yet again. He turned immediately to spot his assailant, discovering that Hunter III, headless and overheating, had managed to get back up and fire the last of its missiles at him. In a mild rage, he fired his machine gun at the crippled AC, riddling it with more bullet holes before it fell down again.

Deathsythe took its chance and made a swift strike with the moonlight while Oblivion was destracted, managing to take out the right arm from the elbow. The EO of his core immediately opened fire into the rear of Oblivion, damaging the overbooster before he managed to move his sorry metal ass. Oblivion moved out of Deathsythe's range of fire and observed the battlefield. There were about thirty Ravens left from the Cortex fighting, and there now weren't enough Neo Core forces left to take them out. He looked for a few seconds before having to dodge to the side, evading a linear cannon shot from a raven's tank. "Our match is a draw for now, Raven," he stated over the comm, sensing the Misteye's visor glaring at him. "The next time we meet, only one of us will walk away alive!" With that, Oblivion took off towards the distant horizon. Several of the Neo Core MTs also departed, leaving the rest to be destroyed by the defenders.

Deathsythe struggled up onto its one leg and surveyed the battle area as well. He saw the field littered with the destroyed metal carcasses of NCMTs, Cortex MTs, and Raven ACs all over the place. The computer determined that the MT pilots survival chances were about 25, but the ravens had a lower survival rating because of how severely decimated they were from the enemy. Many of the Cores had their cockpits targeted, others only had half their cores and their legs remianing. Very few were salvagable. The survivors were already checking the area for any sign of life from the other MTs and ACs that had fallen, even though some of the searchers were in no better shape themselves. Ace was a prime example, for his AC was nicked in virtually every possible spot. Segments of his armor plating was gone, exposing the vulnerable innards within. His right arm was lost somewhere in the sea of MTs, and his head gear was severely banged up.

Reaper confirmed that everyone from his team were among the ones that had survived, and was pleased to see that Tanja's team was alright as well. Demon and Sprint were in decent shape, their tactic had helped them avoid serious damage to their ACs, making them prime personell for moving the damaged ACs. Big Shot had lost a leg to her AC, but that didn't stop her from fighting on and forcing the enemy away from her. Her unit would require some time in the shop to repair all the dents, burns, and gashes in its armor. Devil was virtually unscathed, if you failed to notice the damaged front of his tank. That was from charging the first MT to get close at overboost speed with the flamethrower ignited, resulting in one flattened MT. Satisfied that they didn't need any immediate assistance, he activated his boosters and made a quick dash to Hunter III to check on Tanja.

When he got there, the AC was already starting to turn a dull shade of purple. The red hot metal was starting to melt the blue paint right off the armor, while the armor segments were white at the edges. Her AC was a mess, and the heat levels were still rising. He set his AC down right on top of Hunter III and opened his cockpit, jumping out onto the damaged core and opened the cockpit hatch. He felt the heat of the damaged AC when he landed, and grabbing the hatch release was like grabbing a heated metal pole. The heat went through his pilot gloves as he opened the cockpit, his left arm burning in pain from the heat and the lack of healing it had. He gritted his teeth to supress the pain as he got in and fished Tanja out, who was out cold because of the excessive heat from within. Glancing to his side, he smashed the emergency power controls with his right as he hoisted Tanja over his left shoulder. The unit immediately went into emergency shutdown mode as Reaper hoisted himself and Tanja outside. He immediately checked her condition the instant he got her onto the ground, noticing that her body was really heated up from the exposure. Glass shards were stuck in several places on her left side, the wounds already scabbed from the heat in a poor manner. "Tanja! TANJA!" She didn't respond to Reaper as he called. "Shit!" He tapped his head gear and acessed a comm channel. "Lians, it Reaper. We need medical teams out here stat. One raven with heat exposure and countless other pilots in the battlefield. We need them right now!" He never gave Lians the chance to respond, for he then threw off his helmet and immediately did his best to keep Tanja cool.

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took longer than anticipated, but it's finally done. as usual, read and review for the next chapter. also, here are the list of reviewers from the last chapter:

Bloody kitsune: good luck in getting nexus, and be careful when assembling your new core when you do. As for the pilot of that other Zio Streak, refer to the story.

Rytiko: I am honored that you gave my fan fiction a chance. I also hope that your fanfic will do better when you give yourself the chance to write it, i'll be checking it out when i find it. lastly, those three ACs in silent line are always a problem for everybody, I think. Just keep trying and adjust your AC accordingly, they will eventually fall to your weapons and skill.

Serix14: hope the teachers really don't care, otherwise i might accidently get you in a bit of trouble. you wanted to see the next chapter, so here it is. hope you enjoyed it and stick around till i am truely finished.