Armored Core: Lunar Battle
Chapter 12: Landing
"You're kidding!" Doom responded from her AC, Red Death. "Earth sent reinforcements?"
Dark couldn't help but grin. "Finally. Their ACs are supposed to be high end models, right?"
Desturctor sighed. "We may be getting reinforcements from Earth, but that means very little, especially since those turrents are still up." He had gotten his only martian Ravens up as soon as he got word of Earth's counterstrike against Lunar, which was scheduled to land on the moon today. "If those turrents don't go down in the next fifteen minutes, all of them are dead." His AC looked at the Planetary Plasma Cannons set up. "Besides, Pilan's on there.
Both Midnight and Red Death's mechanized heads snapped towards the emeraude. "Pilan?" they said in union.
"The pilot of Zeo Streak II?" Dark asked.
"You can't mean the legendary Nine Breaker's daughter?" Doom backed up.
Destructor groaned loudly on the comm. "That is why I wasn't speaking about it for a while," he said. "I recieved word from her nearly a week ago that she'd be trying to get to lunar after being launched to earth by accident. She only got in contact with me by vid communication, but she's coming with the Earth Ravens."
The two ACs looked at each other with their visors, then looked back at AC Destructor. "Is there a reason you didn't mention her?" Dark asked.
The nighteye glared at AC Midnight for a moment. "Yeah, she is a good friend of mine," he replied. "I was friends with her when we both were five, before the Colony Massacre." Both Dark and Doom cringed in their cockpits. They, just like all the massacre survivors, didn't like talking about what happened. "After that occured, I was her only friend left, and we both looked out for each other..." He stayed quiet.
"Until the Lunar drop..." Doom said, realizing that was the only time he probably couldn't.
"...yeah..." He looked at the timer he set up on his clock. "Shit, we're running late team," Destructor said quickly, dropping the subject. "The ships will be approaching Lunar orbit in a matter of minutes, and those turrents will be armed soon to shoot them. We have to take them out now, or else there is no way that those reinforcements will make it." Without another word, the whine of overboosters was heared from the anchient Emeraude. "May we be victorious with this mission. Lets go!" Just as an explosion was heard, signaling the excessive thrust of AC Destructor's booster, two more whines were heard as AC Red Death and AC Midnight activated their overthrust systems. 'I hope we complete this in time,' Destructor thought as twin explosions were heard behind him, signaling that his allies were coming along for the ride.
"We are now on final approach to Lunar," the comms said through the halls of Decimation. "All Ravens, we are on final approach. Prepair to board your ACs."
Nick and Jen awoke to the announcement, but didn't do anything in reguards to getting to their Armored Cores, they already were in them. They set up the power sequences to their ACs and had their computers handle the power distribution throughout the machines. Their cameras turned on in time for the duo to see Eddy and Linda enter the hanger, both of them actually standing together a little bit. Neither one was avoiding each other, and they actually chanced looking at each other a little bit, but they would turn away just moments after noticing the other was looking as well. "Seems those two are faring a little better now," Nick murmured on a private channel to Jen.
"Seems that way," she said, "no daggers or mallets, anyway..." They watched as the two entered their ACs. "I wonder how Sarah and Chris are fairing..."
At that particular moment in time, on board the Tactic, Pilan's AC was all powered up and ready for battle. AC Kaiser was just starting up, as was the AC Painbringer and AC Hell Bringer.
"What the..." The pilots aboard Avenger III saw several small glowing areas on the moons surface. "Avenger III to all ships, enemy planetary turrents are arming up. Prepare for evasive manuvers."
"Rodger that, Avenger III. We have confirmed defence activation and are preparing for evasion."
"Everybody hang on," the pilots of Decimation said. "We're in for a bumpy ride."
AC Demolition wasted no time upon arriving to the turrent site. Once he got close, he targeted the enemy MT units that were in the way and opened fire with his rifle, sniping out the cores of the units. AC Midnight thrusted in on normal power to arm its laser cannon, while AC Red Death landed and pelted the closest MT with its energy machine gun.
"We can't waste time on the MTs," Destructor said, scanning the area quickly as he speared another MT with his laser sword. "There are seven defense turrents here, and all of them must be eliminated to ensure the ships make it! Is that understood?"
"Affirmitive," Dark said, firing his laser cannon into the nearest turrent.
"Rodger," Doom said as she flew towards one, missile system armed. When she pressed the trigger, a single missile plummeted down towards the ground as additional missiles soared off the AC's shoulders. The single missile split into four and slammed the turrent on all sides, with the shoulder launched ones plowing into the main barrel. AC Destructor armed the rocket launcher it has towards a third launcher, firing a rather large projectile from the launcher. It slammed into the side with a spectacular explosion, but the turrent still stood.
Dark continued his assault, swapping between his laser cannon and his grenade launcher on his AC's back. He nearly used up half his grenade rounds before his turrent went down, and his cannon was half drained of its energy. "HA! Take that, Bastards! Going for another one!" He charged towards the next one, firing his spread bazooka into it as he charged.
Destructor growled in irritation when his turrent went down. "Damn! That took all my rockets!" he said as he swapped weapons. "We've got to hurry up! Those turrents will be firing any minute!"
"Rodger!" Doom said as she fired her fifth set of missiles. They slammed into the turrent as a loud explosion was heard. She looked in horror as the plasma beam soared into space from the collapsing turrent. "#$! My turrent fired a shot, but it won't shoot again now..."
Destructor slammed a console. "Dont' worry about it now! We've got four more to take out!"
"SHIT! THEY'RE FIRING!" Dark said as he continued his assult on his turrent, arming his grenades again. The trio looked in horror as beams of plasma were fired into space, but didnt' waste time worrying about that.
"TIME'S UP! NO HORSING AROUND NOW, LET'S GET RID OF THEM QUICK!"
"EVASIVE MANUVERS!" Pilan felt the tremor as the ship used its emergency thrusters to dodge the incoming beam. "THE PLANETARY DEFENSES ARE ACTIVE!"
"TELL US SOMETHING WE DON'T KNOW!" the Decimation pilot said. "ANOTHER BEAM! HARD TO PORT!" Tactic's pilot barely got the warning in time, but just managed to avoid the second shot.
"Man, I hate being holed up in this ship now..." Chris murmured on the comm. "We're sitting ducks..."
"SHUT UP, A-3! WE'RE ALL IN THIS DAMNED THING RIGHT NOW!"
"This is chaotic," Pilan murmured in her cockpit. "Just like on the Triton..."
"AVENGER III, THAT BEAM'S COMING RIGHT FOR YOU! HARD TO STARBOARD, HURRY!"
"I'M TRYING!" The sound of warning alarms sounded on the comms as it sounded like a near miss. "THESE GUYS ARE RELENTLESS! I JUST LOST PORT SIDE THRUSTERS FROM THAT NEAR MISS!"
"EYES FRONT, AVENGER III, TWO MORE BEAMS HEADING FOR YOU!"
"YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME! HARD TO PORT!" Pilan gasped when she heard more alarms go off on the coms. "WE'RE IN TROUBLE HERE, THE EMERGENCY STARBOARD SIDE THRUSTERS ARE NOW GONE!"
"HANG ON!" Pilan felt the shudder as the Tactic barely evaded another one. "DAMMIT, THEY'RE FOCUSING FIRE ON SINGLE SHIPS! WE CAN'T DODGE THAT MANY!"
"I CAN'T DODGE THEM!" The Avenger's pilot yelled. More alarms sounded, including a computerized abandon ship order. "WE JUST LOST MAIN THRUST..AAAAGHHH!"
A loud explosion occured as Avenger III was destroyed. The shockwave shook the two remaining ships.
"DAMMIT! WE JUST LOST AVENGER III!"
Pilan's AC moved out of its hanger spot and reached for a handle near the back of the area. "Hey," Royal Mist yelled. "What do you think your doing!"
Zeo Streak II's visor turned to meet AC Kaiser's Rachis head. "I'm going down there." She said.
"ARE YOU INSANE? THERE ARE PLASMA CANNONS FIRING AT US! YOU'RE GOING TO GET KILLED OUT THERE!"
"Dont' stop me," Pilan said as her AC's sword arm pulled the lever. The rear hatch opened slowly, the atmosphere in the hanger bay quickly going out into space as they did so. "See you guys on the moon," she said as she thrusted out of the bay, making sure it was closing behind her.
"THE HELL? TACTIC, EXPLAIN WHY YOU JUST JETTESONED AN AC!"
"This is Pilan Zeo of the martian assult team," Pilan said on all channels. "I left the Tactic on my own accord. Don't get in my way." She then looked in front. "Decimation, hard to starboard!" The ship responded by boosting hard to the side.
Pilan sighed. 'This is probably the craziest thing I'm going to do yet,' she thought as she positioned her AC with her thrusters, seeing no beams heading her way as Zeo Streak II faced the cannon location. She then opened up her Overboosters and unfolded her grenade launcher, then she was thrusting herself straight towards the turrent base.
Destructor looked up in the sky when he saw a bright flash of light, seeing the speck where Avenger III was a moment ago. "That's not good!" he said on the communications. He was currently busy with MT units, which had chosen to strike at this time again.
"Sorry, Destructor," Doom said as she fired the last of her missiles into her target. "We're trying our best to finish these turrents off as fast as we can!" She stopped moving as her unit crouched down, her plasma cannon unfolding on her AC as she prepared to fire.
Dark finished destroying his second turrent, but has a problem. "There goes our fourth turrent, but I'm out of cannon and launcher rounds." an explosion sounded as he saw Doom's target get blasted by her cannon. "Make that five turrents."
Doom was just getting up when she had a problem of her own. An enemy MT slammed hers forward, causing it to collapse on its front. She looked behind her and saw the model, which was boosting back towards another turrent and arming a nasty looking weapon on its back. "I'm in trouble!"
Both Destructor and Dark saw her problem, but all three ACs detected a threat worse than an MT. "Enemy AC detected!" their computers warned them at the same time. All three were startled by what their computers said, for they were already in trouble with ammo at the moment. The MT, though, looked up towards space, noticing a speck up there. It couldn't respond before an orange sphere came down upon it, which exploded upon impact. The grenade took out all but the unit's legs, and happened to damage the area around it slightly.
"Holy Hell!" Doom yelled as reminants of the MT pelted her AC from the explosion. She looked up towards the stars, seeing a growing speck approaching. "Is that the AC?" she asked as her AC's EGRET tilted up for a better look. AC Midnight's Egret head as well as AC Destructor's Nighteye looked up as well, spotting the incoming unit.
Their computers beeped. "Target AC Zeo Streak II identified," they said simultaniously.
"Zeo Streak II?" Doom and Dark asked simultaniously. As they looked, their AC's magnified their viewers to maximum, revealing a fast moving Zeo Streak II approaching with its grenade cannon folding up. It then armed its Karasawa MKII rifle and pointed at one of the plasma cannon turrents, firing three shots down its barrel before it could fire another shot at the spacecraft. A loud whine was heard from the turrent before it exploded into pieces, wreckage flying all over the place.
"Hey, guys," a girl's voice intruded over the comms, a voice that Destructor wanted to speak to in person for a while. "Don't we have something left to destroy?"
Destructor smirked. "Yeah, we do, Pilan," he replied. "But my team's nearly spent. Doom only has her plasma cannon left to try on them. Zeo Streak II then flipped around and engaged its thrusters, slowing its speeded decent on to the moon. It then armed its grenade launcher and aimed for the last turrent.
"Tell her to fire three shots at its base," Pilan said, "as I fire grenades. You and that hover tank cover us from those MTs."
"Rodger," the three pilots responded. AC Midnight and AC Destructor moved to intercept the few MTs still around. The MTs were the same ones that were encountered in the Cortex fight, but their programming was ill suited for space combat. As Destructor and Midnight shot and slashed through the MTs, while still taking some mild damage from the enemy, Pilan and Doom fired their cannons into the final turrent. The turrent managed only two more shots before its base gave up from damages and collapsed, nearly burying AC Red Death in the process. Zeo Streak II landed next to the look-alike and gave it a hand with its blade arm extended, its hand motioning to allow it to help the AC up.
"Alright," Dark shouted as the last MT was destroyed. "We got them!"
Zeo Streak's visor glared at AC Midnight. "This fight isn't over yet," she said sharply. "Our mission isn't over until Neo Core is defeated, and we can't do that without the reinforcements." She looked up into space, seeing the growing specks of the two ships that were still there. "We lost one ship before I came down. With the loss of Avenger III, we also lost four ravens and three brave starship pilots."
"So," Destructor stated, stepping up to Pilan's AC. "What's our next move?"
"Destructor," she said softly, "why are you asking me?"
"I was in charge of the team you see before you ever since we got here, but only because I was the highest ranked raven here." He grinned sheepishly. "Now that you're here, you're in charge. Or did you forget you're the highest ranked raven in the Concord?"
Pilan tapped her helmet. "Guess I did forget..." she replied. "We should link up with the Decimation and the Tactic, the two ships that survived the battle. There, we can get repairs, reload, and coordinate our next move with the earth ravens."
Nick listened to the silence. "Guess we're still alive, for the fighting seems to have stopped..." he said to break that silence.
"Nice of you to state the obvious," Jen replied on her comms.
"Listen up, Ravens," the pilot said on the comm systems. "We are now in Lunar space, and we have successfully cleared the Lunar defense cannons. Unfortunately, we lost Avenger III, along with the ravens on board that ship. Our fight will be tougher now because of what happened." He paused. "During the combat, an AC left the Tactic and managed to get to Lunar without serious incident. We have a message from her."
"This Pilan Zeo, daugher of the martian Nine Breaker, Pilana Zeo. This part of the operation was a success in several ways. With the defense cannons now gone, there is no way Neo Core can defend themselves from additional Dropships of ACs and your path to the planet is now clear." She paused for a breath. "It is also with great relief that I say that, during the fight against the cannons, I was able to link up with a trio of Martian survivors from over a week ago. I am as surprised, as possibly many of you are, that anyone from the origional martian assult team managed to safely arrive and survive on the planet. We are currently waiting for the ships to land, so that we can rearm, repair, rest, and plan out the next move against Neo Core. I await my friends and comrades in arms here."
Nick whistled. "that was a rather impressive speech."
"I second that," Jen said. They looked at Quick Death V and Speed Demon, waiting for their pilots to respond. "Hey, you two still alive?" Jen asked.
"Sorry," Linda replied from her Ac, sounding a little weak. "I kinda had an...accident...in my AC..."
Nick looked in that direction. "What was wrong? Did the fighting outside make you pee?"
"NICK!" Jen said in irritation.
"no...I...uh..I kinda...puked... all over the console here... uugh..." Jen and Nick were kinda surprised about her saying something like that.
"Hey, Eddie. You die in there or something?" Nick said, trying to get the image he just had out of his head.
"Sorry about not speaking," Ed said on his comm. "Forgot to turn it on when the fighting stopped. Did I miss something?"
"We lost Avenger III, we are now on Lunar, and...Linda puked inside her AC..." Nick said bluntly.
"She what!" Eddy said immediately upon hearing that. His image on the screen turned pale. "Uh oh..."
"Hey. What's wrong?" Nick said.
"Nothing really," Eddy replied. 'I hope,' he thought to himself "Let me get her to the room." Before Nick could say anything, Eddy got out of his AC and pushed off towards Quick Death V. Once there, Linda slowly got out of the AC, a look of weakness on her with identacle looks of disgust from the two when they looked back into the cockpit for a moment. They then pushed off towards the hall and walked off.
"Nick," Jen started. "I think it may be best if we don't bother them for a while..." Nick could only look at the screen showing her face and nod, but he still was questioning himself as to what would have Eddy act like that.
Jen could only watch as the two left. 'I'm hoping that their little drunken escapade a few days ago didn't become something more worrysome,' she thought. The ship was rather quiet as it started its landing on the ground, most of its crew, along with the crew of the Tactic, hoping that they can end this war quickly.
my sincerest apologies for the extreme lateness of this fanfiction. ever since I wrote that last chapter, I suffered from writers block, work, moving, family seperation, moving a second time in the same month, and finally getting the computer hooked up once more to the internet. Only good thing is that i'm using the same clunker that houses most of my fanfiction data anyways. There will be no reviewer's response notice here, for I couldn't keep track of which ones were prior to my disappearance. Feel free to review for anything, whether it be thoughts on what will happen next, how horrible i may be writing, yell at me for breaking promises, whatever.
this time, next chapter is coming out soon. hope to see some familar names