Chap 2 The Raven Test
I walked my MT into the garage and asked the supervising mechanic to get someone to repair it. After this was done I checked in with the garage supervisor.
"That was a really excellent job you did out there Xero."
"thanks, but that raven did most of the work."
"Actually I just got a check-in call from her and she said the same thing about you."
"Really? Huh..."
"Aww well I'm glad that you guys came back in one piece. I honestly thought that there would be more casualties... Sorry."
"O, well that's what everyone thinks when you send more MTs in."
"Well I guess your right. Ok that's enough of that; the credits will be transferred into your account tonight. Why don't you go on home and rest, you've done more than enough for one day."
"Ok, then ill see you later."
"Bye."
It was a long ride back to my house. When I got home I took a shower and checked the clock.
"Damn, its only 1:30 in the afternoon. I can't sleep this early. Hell, on Sundays this is when I wake up!" So I decided to check my e-mail and watch some TV I decided to check my mail first so I went to my desk in the living room and switched on my laptop. About thirty seconds later I got into my mail. "God, they finally get totally rid of "snail-mail" but they still can't get rid of spam." I continued checking my mail sorting the credit card applications from the free porn offers. "Hey, this looks interesting." And indeed it was, it was a new email from the cortex that I got no more than twenty minutes ago.
It read, "To Xero, we here at the global cortex have just received the report from your supervisor regarding your last mission. To say the least we are very impressed. You showed excellent leadership skills as well as battle strategies and tactics that only most veteran commanders are blessed with, and you came up with them in a moments pause. Not to mention your incredible fighting ability." "Damn, did I really do that good?" "And so we have finally come to the conclusion that you and your teammates should be inducted into the raven fold as soon as possible. We have come up with the 16 of June pro-GD year 235 as the date for your raven test. Be at the garage in Zenith city at 8:00 AM, don't be late. We wish you the best of luck. And we look forward to working with you as a raven."
"WOO-HOO!!!" Finally they get a date set. Zenith city, geez that's like forever away. A good four or five hour drive. Better find somebody to go with me. Wonder if anybody will? No sooner had I thought this did the phone ring.
"Hello?"
"Xero? Oh hi its blaze."
"Oh hi, what's up?"
"Well I just got this email from the cortex and they said that I did really good on that last mission. And they set a date for my raven test on June 16, and I was wondering if you would like to go with me, its a long drive ya-no? Oh and the two other guys called and told me to ask you too, they got approved for the test as well."
"Who else?"
"Dash and Morrow."
"Oh them duh, hey let me guess, Zenith city?"
"Ya, how did you know?"
"I got approved for the test too. Ya ill take you guys. We'll all go, make a road trip out of it."
"That's great! Cool, well I better call the others and let 'em know."
"Alright later."
"Bye."
"Well that's a nice turnout, we're all on the same test. I wonder how the cortex is going to pull that off? I guess ill find out in a couple of days. Now its time for some TV"
So I walked over to the kitchen, got a sandwich ready and went back to the living room to get brain washed. After about an hour of nothing I decided to turn it off. "There's never anything good on anymore." Ok well I better go to my AC training device and get some work done.
"To the mall!" It may sound funny but the arcade in the mall had some pretty impressive simulators that, I was told, perfectly simulated an AC cockpit. And believe it or not there were some talented kids down there. So I got in my car and headed to the mall in my town. Though it was more like a mini-mall with next-to-no stores.
Ten minutes later I was at the mall, another three minutes and I was in the arcade. It was your standard arcade, almost every game was a virtual reality simulator and then you also had your standard arcade video games. There were three AC simulators. They always had a long waiting line for each one. How it worked was the first person to win stays in and fights the next person and the next and they keep going until they lose and the won that beats them gets to fight the next person and the next etc... There is no limit to how long you can stay in the simulator that I know of.
So I got in line and waited until it was my turn and I got in. It took about half-an-hour to get to the simulators. The only really bad thing about the simulators is that you have to play in a standard issue AC but that still isn't bad. I got all strapped in and started battling the current "champion". I immediately boosted straight at him and started firing wild shots at him. When I got closer I boosted straight into the air and came down right on top of him, crushing his legs. I fired up my blade and drove it down straight through his head. Then I boosted off and back while I fired three shots into his core. When I landed he stumbled backwards a bit then his head exploded and he fell over. I defeated 32 more people until I finally gave up and let this 11 year old kid Beat me so I could leave. I was getting kinda bored as you could imagine.
I got home at around 8:30 and decided I could try to sleep; I was tired now, somewhat.
When I got up the next morning I found my computer blinking, which meant I had new mail. I decided to see what it was so I turned it on and check it before I went to work. Which was a good thing because when I opened up my inbox I found an e-mail from Charlie (my supervisor). It read:
"To Xero, I am very happy to hear that you have finally been scheduled for a raven test. So knowing that your test is in two days I'm going to give you the next few days off until your test. I am also giving the same "rest days" if you will to Blaze, Morrow and Dash. I wish you the best of luck and hope that the next time we meet you will be a raven. Best of luck, Charlie Christian"
Well that's cool, days off. Usually you have to screw up to get "days off". Oh well I'm not complaining.
The next two days were uneventful. On the day before the test we all decided that everyone should stay at my house for the night because we would have to get up at the very asscrack of dawn. So on the 16th of June we all piled into my truck at 3:00 o'clock in the morning and started off.
It was an "interesting" ride to say the least. We were all arguing about the best AC designs and how we thought that we were going to be tested, we had never heard of a four-way raven test before.
When we got to the garage in Zenith city we were directed toward the training center. We parked the car, got out and stretched, and then we went to the main test office.
We walked through the automatic doors into a somewhat grey room with the Cortex's orange emblem on the floor. There were two doors that led out of the office, one on each side. The office was void except for a couch on one side and the receptionist's desk on the other. We walked up to the desk. The receptionist was a young woman who looked about 23. She had straight black hair and brown eyes. She was sitting in a chair behind the desk and was wearing a navy blue business outfit.
"Good morning."
"Good morning. Can I help you?"
"We are here to take the raven test scheduled for today."
"Oh, your here right on time. The supervising raven just checked in. Alrighty then, can I have your suggested callsigns please?"
"Xero."
"Morrow."
"Blaze."
"Dash."
"Thank you. Now may I have, in the same order, your real names?"
"Xero."
"Umm... Sir may I have your real name?"
"That is my name, and also my callsign."
"Oh, I apologize. Continue please."
"Jack Biggs."
"Samantha Jull."
"Daniel Sheins."
"Thank you. Now through that door is the AC garage. Normally we would have two potential ravens participate in a mission. But since there are four of you, we will have all of you fight a large group of MTs at once. You will still be evaluated by a raven however."
"My I ask which raven will be observing us?"
"Of course, just a second... Oh yes a raven named "Bull"."
"Who is that?"
"I don't know much about him really, but he is ranked A-4 in the arena so you guys better behave yourselves.
"Oh. Huh ok."
Now if you will please enter the garage the raven will assist you with the rest of the test." The receptionist said as she gave us all nametags. And directed us towards the left door.
"Thank you."
"Good luck."
With that done we headed through the door on the left and into the AC garage. As soon as we walked in we were greeted by a friendly hello that came from "Bull" who was standing in front of four standard issue ACs, his AC was behind them. His AC was a large mid-weight that was painted green and black and its head was painted red. The only weapons it had were a powerful, short range laser blade and the Karasawa.
"Hello all of you. Before we get started I think it's a good idea for us to all get to know each other. I'm bull incase you didn't know. May I have your names as well please?"
"I'm Xero."
"Morrow."
"Blaze."
"Dash."
"Alright then with that settled lets go over what is going to happen here today. First of all you are each going to get into one of the ACs before you. After this is accomplished, I hope that you all survive..." he kinda laughed a bit. Though none of us did.
He's got a sense off humor, he can't be that bad. Right?
"You will be taken to a desert area right outside of town, take the time enroute to familiarize yourself with the controls. When we arrive there will be 40 MTs waiting for you."
"40! Isn't that alot!?"
"Not really." He continued, "You will all attack at the same time. You are not assigned any certain targets but you are each required to take out ten MTs. Once you destroy ten then you will disengage and move out of the Battle area. You are NOT to destroy more or less than ten targets each, we don't want anyone getting off easy here. Any questions?"
No answer.
"Alright then, lets get going."
I got to the far right AC, (though it doesn't matter, there all the same) and Morrow got to the next and then Blaze and dash. We walked up to the ACs and a small door opened at the back of the core. Out of the door lowered a small cord with a loop at the end.
"Now don't hold on to the loop and expect to be pulled up." Bull quickly instructed looking at morrow and I, who were picking up the cord and wrapping it around our arms.
Morrow and I both let go of the loops and dropped the cord.
"Put your foot into the loop like so, leaving you "standing" on the cord then grab hold of the cord and ride up." Bull managed to say between everyone's laughing at jack and I.
Once inside the AC we put on the jump suit that was hanging inside the cockpit. After I put on the suit a million tiny lasers shot out of the walls and started tracing my body. After the lasers were done two arm braces, two leg braces, two chest straps and a helmet came out of the walls of the cockpit in their respective places. I put them on and they seemed to fit perfectly. As soon as I tightened the last strap the floor gave way and became the bottom of the cockpit leaving me floating there. The cockpit was now a perfect sphere. "Arcade, tuh, perfect cockpit simulator my ass."
"What?"
"Oh, nothing." No way I was going to admit to anybody that I trained in the arcade at the mall, especially the A-4 ranked raven.
"Lets go. Follow me." And we all followed bull out of the garage. As soon as we were outside I saw bull boost straight up into the air. We all practiced maneuvering around in the ACs and figuring out how to work all of the functions, which wasn't very difficult being as it followed your every move perfectly. On the end of each arm brace was a glove, inside each glove were buttons for each finger. And they all had different functions. One controlled the boosters, one the overboost, one for each off the back weapons etc...
We had been traveling for about 45 minutes and I would say we were about ten miles outside of the city. When bull came over the comm.
"Ok, everybody stop what your doing and line up left to right."
We did just as ordered. And there they were, all forty battle MTs lined up in five rows of eight. The battlefield was completely flat with no cover at all. It was indeed a desert area, the sun beat down on the ground and I could see the heat waves resonating from the golden, sand covered ground.
"Ok guys, being as 40 MTs are quite alot for 4 rookie ravens we have set the MTs to only attack those of you who have fired first. Giving each of you one free shot. So lets say Morrow here fires first, the MTs will only attack him. Then when the next person fires the MTs will attack them also. And as I said before: you are not to destroy more or less than ten each. I will observe from a distance, but I will NOT help under any circumstances. I will also keep score for you guys, it will probably get pretty hectic, and the last thing that you will need to be thinking about is how many you've taken out. Everyone understand the rules of the game?"
"Got it." Blaze was the only one to respond.
"Then everyone fire at will." After he had said everything he overboosted away to quite a distance.
"Here we go!"
I turned on my F.C.S. And targeted the head of the nearest MT. I fired right away, destroying its head.
"Xero: one down." Bull announced over the com.
As soon as I fired the MTs started moving; firing missiles and chain gun rounds everywhere.
"Dash: one down. Morrow: one down."
I didn't have time to watch what others were doing so I didn't try. I flew into the air and locked one missile onto another MT and fired it off. As it was homing in on its target I dodged another six missiles from the right and started firing rifle shots at the MT. I hit it with five shots bye the time the missile got to it, and once it did the MTs upper half exploded.
"Xero: two down, Morrow: three down, Dash: two down, Blaze one-err three down."
One to three, wow that's one hell of a shot. I landed on the ground and immediately overboosted towards another MT and used my blade to quickly cut its legs off at the knee as I flew by. It fell on the ground unable to move. I then turned and boosted to my left to avoid a cloud of chain-gun shots that flew by me destroying another MT behind me. I kept boosting straight and used my blade on another MT, immobilizing it the same way as the last.
"Morrow: six, Xero: five, Blaze: four, Dash: five."
I then jumped behind the MT I had just immobilized and used it for cover from another wave of chain-gun shots. While behind it I locked on another missile. Then I jumped into the air and boosted straight at another MT, as I was flying at it I fired the missile and it plowed into the left arm of the MT destroying the chain gun but at the same time it fired from its other chain gun and hit me right in the core. I did a damage check and there were only a couple big dents. As I was doing the check I started firing a lot of rifle shots at it, eventually destroying it. I then turned to the right just in time to get hit by four missiles; they destroyed the radar on my back, and my missile interception on the core. I jumped into the air again and looked around, I saw an MT walk right under me so I did my favorite thing and dropped straight down. I fired a few shots at it before I landed, as soon as I landed on it I dropped a few more meters, telling me that its legs had been crushed. I drove my blade deep into the center of the MT and brought it back making a huge hole through the MT. Then I jumped of and it exploded before I could fire at it anymore.
"Xero: seven, Morrow: ten. Disengage Morrow. Dash: eight, Blaze, eight."
"Got that, disengaging. Good luck guys." Morrows departing words and he overboosted to meet bull.
"Later morrow." Then I quickly turned my attention back to my enemy, boosting straight ahead and coming up slightly I ended up right above and in front of another MT. I got out my blade and slashed downward as I fell, slicing it in half vertically. I turned to the left and fired four shots into another MT.
"Dash: ten, Blaze: ten, Xero: nine. Dash, Blaze pull out."
"Roger."
"Roger."
Blaze and dash then boosted away from the battle, leaving me with the remaining MT
"One left." I went to check my radar and when I realized that it was gone I started scanning visually. I got hit in the back by two missiles, I turned to face my target and saw a strange looking unit. It was twice as tall as me, it had a core that was tall and thin, I couldn't tell if it went back very far. It had long arms that came out the sides of the core and they stretched to its knees. The legs came from the sides of the bottom of the core and had spikes come out of the front of the upper thigh and lower leg, it also had spikes on each of the feet and three out of the center of the core in a triangle formation. And it had strange weapons in both hands that I couldn't recognize, nothing else. And it also looked as if it was breathing. As soon as I saw it, it disappeared.
"SHIT!!!" I took another hit in the back, this time it destroyed my missile launcher and when I turned around I saw the same thing, a strange looking unit that disappeared as soon as I spotted it. But this time the image blew away like sand in the wind to reveal the final MT standing there. I stood there for a moment thinking about what had just happened and awoke only when bull came over the comm.:
"Are you aborting the mission?"
"No, no, of course not. Just day-dreaming." I boosted straight at it firing my rifle at it the whole time. When I got close enough I brought my blade out and stabbed it straight through the center of the MT. Then I took a few steps back thrust my rifle into the smoking hole that my blade made and started firing off more shots. After I saw shots coming out the back I got my blade out again and slashed straight down; slicing it clean in half. I took a few more steps back and it blew up right in front off me.
"Excellent job, all of you." Bull said and he signaled for us to follow him back to the garage.
"Thanks." But my mind kept wondering back to what I had just seen. I was completely silent for the rest of the trip back until we got to the garage.
"Alright well everyone park your ACs where you found them and hop out." Then he looked at me. "Or whatever's "left" of your AC."
That's when I noticed that my AC was by far the most damaged. "Do I suck that much?"
He laughed at me again, "no your not, the others were just more focused than you."
"Gee, thanks." they wouldn't have been half as focused as they had been if they would've seen what I saw.
"Well then, we all ok? Then lets go back into the office and get your raven licenses all sorted out."
We followed bull back into the office where we came from. When we walked in I saw angel sitting on the couch.
"Hey! What are you doing here?"
"I was waiting for you guys to get back. I came as soon as I saw who was taking the raven test today." "So, bull, were they good little boys and girls? Hmmm?"
"They were, but that one I was worried about." He said, pointing at me.
"Hey! Stoppit! I passed didn't I!" everyone was laughing at me again. "That's not cool you guys."
"Aww, were just kidding. Quit your wining'." Jack was having way too much fun with this.
"Damn you all!!!" I had to laugh at myself on that one. I tried my best to look mad shaking my fist at them. We all laughed a bit harder.
"Well guys, its been fun but I got better things to do than baby-sit a bunch of newbie ravens." And bull turned and walked through the door on the right.
"Alright bull, thanks for watching them. Ill take them from here." Angel yelled after him. He threw his arm up in the air showing he heard as the doors closed behind him.
After the receptionist managed to stop laughing at me she looked up at us all standing at the counter "whew, ok. I need to get the licenses sorted out. While you were taking your test I ran all your names and callsigns through the system, everything checked out. One more thing, do any of you want to be registered in the arena?"
We all said no. I wanted to get used to being a raven for a while before I registered. I didn't know if that was everyone else's reason as well but... God only knows.
"So without further adew I give you your licenses." And the lady behind the desk handed the cards out to their respective owners. "Now is the fun part; you each need to design your ACs. Down that hall is the shop for this garage; we have the best AC parts stock anywhere. They'll have what you want."
"Thank you. Can we take our ACs home today?"
"If you don't mind waiting for them to be assembled. It takes about four hours to assemble an AC from the ground up. You can wait in the raven rec. room while you wait if you like."
"Well I think that's pretty fast so I'm gonna wait here and let them put my AC together."
"Since you're the ride, I guess we're all staying." Blaze didn't sound too happy but too bad. I waited five years to pilot an AC and damnit, I'm gonna take mine home today. If they don't like it, they can lump it.
"Com'on, com'on. Hurry uuup!" Angel was jumping up and down like some hyperactive high school freshman.
"What the hell are you so excited about? Your acting like a little kid that wants to go to the toy store." Angel was pulling on morrows arm now.
"Well, I have to make sure that you guys get good ACs don't I?"
"Huh, whatever." Morrow was quite annoyed.
We all walked to the shop. "Hey-ya chief, what's your name?" I asked the store manager, trying to be nice.
"Wha- oh, oh ya my names Chris. You need a catalogue?" He sounded kinda surprised that I asked for his name.
"Yea Chris, actually we need. One-two-three-four catalogues please."
"Sure here ya go." And he handed us each a small video-pad.
We spent the better part of two hours choosing our parts. I decide on a medium weight AC for the armor and the speed, but it had heavy legs that had been enhanced for increased stability. The legs may have been heavyweights but they were lighter than some of the mid-weights. When I went to click on my selection however angel came over and jumped on my arm. "Oops, oh-well I hope I got it right." I don't know what I clicked on.
"Hey Chris, I'm all ready."
"All right, just tell me your body components now. You can get your weapons when they're done putting it together."
"K, here you go." And I handed him the vid-pad with the desired parts selected.
"Ill have the garage crew get right on it."
The others all did the same shortly after me.
"Ok well it'll be quite awhile before they'll be ready. You can all wait in the nest until there done if you like."
"The nest?"
"Its the rec. room for ravens. When we don't really have anything to do we can go in there. That's also where you can check the arena standings, any info on other ravens if you like and check for any missions."
"Thank you angel, you really saved me a lot of breath." Chris said in response to angels interruption.
"Ha! Your welcome. C'mon lets go."
"Later Chris."
"Ya see-ya."
We went out the door on the right and continued on through the corridor until we came to an elevator. "What floor please?" A computerized voice said as we stepped in.
"The nest please."
"Very well."
We all stepped out of the elevator and into the nest. From where we stood dash pointed out the pool tables in the far corner and we all followed him to the tables and played about four games. Dash ruled the pool table. After that we sat and watched some TV; I tried to get them to watch the Fairly OddParents but for some reason they all insisted on watching the news.
"Why the news? Nothing good ever happens anymore. For instance: why can't they ever report a drug deal that went well? "Here's your money." "Here's your crack, thank you." I just don't understand it." They all laughed at me, again.
I fell asleep on blaze's shoulder and she just let me lay there I guess because I don't remember waking up until I heard our names being called over the intercom, "calling; Xero, Dash, Morrow, blaze. Your ACs are completed. Please report to the shop."
"Yes lets go I have to inspect your ACs."
"Jesus angel..."
So we all followed a hopping Angel back to the shop. "Hey, Chris. How'd everything go?"
"Well, everything except your AC, Xero. We had a bit of a problem attaching your ACs legs to the rest of it."
"What do you mean?"
"Well it was a bit overweight with the light-weight reverse-joint legs that you picked out."
"I didn't pick out light-legs."
"Yes you did, you picked out the first set of reverse-jointed legs."
"Those little things? No I didn't. I picked out the heavy-weights with the advanced stability, I needed it with high the overboost and boosters I had equipped."
"Well you must have clicked the wrong model on the pad that I gave you cause I have it right here. Weren't you looking at the hologram of your AC?"
"Well not really, I was kinda busy trying to get this chick off my back." I pointed at Angel and she stuck her tongue out at me. "Grow up. Your just like a little kid." This time she waved the bird at me. "That's more like it. Well anyway how long will it take you guys to put the right legs on?"
"At least an hour. Sorry but we have to disconnect the current ones which means we have to disconnect all the cables holding it up." He laughed a bit. "Ok well if you want those legs we can put them on but like I said, it will take awhile."
"Aright well, get going on it then. Ill go back to the nest and wait."
"Ok. With that settled, the rest of you can follow me and I will show you to your new ACs."
"Well I'm sorry Xero but I'm gonna head home. It's been fun and all but I kinda wanna test out my AC."
"Ya sorry buddy but I'm with Blaze. Wanna test out my AC then head home. Dash, you in?"
"Ya sure I'll test out my AC but then I can't go home. Vie got some business to tend to."
"Business huh." Morrow slapped him jokingly on the shoulder. "What are you cooking?"
"Well actually it's none of your business."
"Hey there will be no fighting in my shop. Now if you little boys can manage to get along, I can show you three to your ACs to select your weapons." And he ushered them to the door at the side of the desk. "Xero, ill be back shortly to see that legs you want. Please wait here." And he closed the door behind him. Leaving me alone in the room with Angel.
"So do you really think I'm that annoying?" Angel said after about two minutes to break the awkward silence.
"Well not really. I think that you act kinda immature sometimes."
"Really. Hmm. So you think that I should "grow up" huh?"
"A little bit, sometimes." I snuck a sideways glance at her. "But then again it can be good to have a light personality around sometimes."
"I see." "So what are you going to do? Are you going to sit in the nest for another hour?"
"Well I don't really have much of a choice now do I. Unless you have a better idea."
"Well... It is 1:30; do you wanna get some lunch? I know this great Chinese restaurant downtown."
"I'm not really hungry."
"C'mon I can't go alone. I don't have enough credits."
"Ha-ha, nice try. I know as well as you do that most to all ravens are absolutely ROLLING in it. Most have more credits than they now what to do with."
"Fine, you caught me." She giggled a bit. "I've got plenty of money. But I really want you to go. Everyone else left, I can't leave you all alone, I'd feel bad. C'mon, please. hey listen, Ill buy. How does that sound? Huh?" I was expecting her to jump to her knees and beg in a sec. God id pay to see that.
"Ya alright ill go. But I can buy my own food thank you very much. Believe it or not I have a load of credits too. How do you think I'm paying for all of these parts? I may not have known my parents but they did leave me a bank full. We just gotta wait for Chris to get back so that I can tell him what I want my AC to stand on."
"Very well then. We'll go to Chu's Chinese. It's really good, trust me."
"Oh, boy. I can hardly wait." I rolled my eyes, hoping Angel didn't catch it.
I walked my MT into the garage and asked the supervising mechanic to get someone to repair it. After this was done I checked in with the garage supervisor.
"That was a really excellent job you did out there Xero."
"thanks, but that raven did most of the work."
"Actually I just got a check-in call from her and she said the same thing about you."
"Really? Huh..."
"Aww well I'm glad that you guys came back in one piece. I honestly thought that there would be more casualties... Sorry."
"O, well that's what everyone thinks when you send more MTs in."
"Well I guess your right. Ok that's enough of that; the credits will be transferred into your account tonight. Why don't you go on home and rest, you've done more than enough for one day."
"Ok, then ill see you later."
"Bye."
It was a long ride back to my house. When I got home I took a shower and checked the clock.
"Damn, its only 1:30 in the afternoon. I can't sleep this early. Hell, on Sundays this is when I wake up!" So I decided to check my e-mail and watch some TV I decided to check my mail first so I went to my desk in the living room and switched on my laptop. About thirty seconds later I got into my mail. "God, they finally get totally rid of "snail-mail" but they still can't get rid of spam." I continued checking my mail sorting the credit card applications from the free porn offers. "Hey, this looks interesting." And indeed it was, it was a new email from the cortex that I got no more than twenty minutes ago.
It read, "To Xero, we here at the global cortex have just received the report from your supervisor regarding your last mission. To say the least we are very impressed. You showed excellent leadership skills as well as battle strategies and tactics that only most veteran commanders are blessed with, and you came up with them in a moments pause. Not to mention your incredible fighting ability." "Damn, did I really do that good?" "And so we have finally come to the conclusion that you and your teammates should be inducted into the raven fold as soon as possible. We have come up with the 16 of June pro-GD year 235 as the date for your raven test. Be at the garage in Zenith city at 8:00 AM, don't be late. We wish you the best of luck. And we look forward to working with you as a raven."
"WOO-HOO!!!" Finally they get a date set. Zenith city, geez that's like forever away. A good four or five hour drive. Better find somebody to go with me. Wonder if anybody will? No sooner had I thought this did the phone ring.
"Hello?"
"Xero? Oh hi its blaze."
"Oh hi, what's up?"
"Well I just got this email from the cortex and they said that I did really good on that last mission. And they set a date for my raven test on June 16, and I was wondering if you would like to go with me, its a long drive ya-no? Oh and the two other guys called and told me to ask you too, they got approved for the test as well."
"Who else?"
"Dash and Morrow."
"Oh them duh, hey let me guess, Zenith city?"
"Ya, how did you know?"
"I got approved for the test too. Ya ill take you guys. We'll all go, make a road trip out of it."
"That's great! Cool, well I better call the others and let 'em know."
"Alright later."
"Bye."
"Well that's a nice turnout, we're all on the same test. I wonder how the cortex is going to pull that off? I guess ill find out in a couple of days. Now its time for some TV"
So I walked over to the kitchen, got a sandwich ready and went back to the living room to get brain washed. After about an hour of nothing I decided to turn it off. "There's never anything good on anymore." Ok well I better go to my AC training device and get some work done.
"To the mall!" It may sound funny but the arcade in the mall had some pretty impressive simulators that, I was told, perfectly simulated an AC cockpit. And believe it or not there were some talented kids down there. So I got in my car and headed to the mall in my town. Though it was more like a mini-mall with next-to-no stores.
Ten minutes later I was at the mall, another three minutes and I was in the arcade. It was your standard arcade, almost every game was a virtual reality simulator and then you also had your standard arcade video games. There were three AC simulators. They always had a long waiting line for each one. How it worked was the first person to win stays in and fights the next person and the next and they keep going until they lose and the won that beats them gets to fight the next person and the next etc... There is no limit to how long you can stay in the simulator that I know of.
So I got in line and waited until it was my turn and I got in. It took about half-an-hour to get to the simulators. The only really bad thing about the simulators is that you have to play in a standard issue AC but that still isn't bad. I got all strapped in and started battling the current "champion". I immediately boosted straight at him and started firing wild shots at him. When I got closer I boosted straight into the air and came down right on top of him, crushing his legs. I fired up my blade and drove it down straight through his head. Then I boosted off and back while I fired three shots into his core. When I landed he stumbled backwards a bit then his head exploded and he fell over. I defeated 32 more people until I finally gave up and let this 11 year old kid Beat me so I could leave. I was getting kinda bored as you could imagine.
I got home at around 8:30 and decided I could try to sleep; I was tired now, somewhat.
When I got up the next morning I found my computer blinking, which meant I had new mail. I decided to see what it was so I turned it on and check it before I went to work. Which was a good thing because when I opened up my inbox I found an e-mail from Charlie (my supervisor). It read:
"To Xero, I am very happy to hear that you have finally been scheduled for a raven test. So knowing that your test is in two days I'm going to give you the next few days off until your test. I am also giving the same "rest days" if you will to Blaze, Morrow and Dash. I wish you the best of luck and hope that the next time we meet you will be a raven. Best of luck, Charlie Christian"
Well that's cool, days off. Usually you have to screw up to get "days off". Oh well I'm not complaining.
The next two days were uneventful. On the day before the test we all decided that everyone should stay at my house for the night because we would have to get up at the very asscrack of dawn. So on the 16th of June we all piled into my truck at 3:00 o'clock in the morning and started off.
It was an "interesting" ride to say the least. We were all arguing about the best AC designs and how we thought that we were going to be tested, we had never heard of a four-way raven test before.
When we got to the garage in Zenith city we were directed toward the training center. We parked the car, got out and stretched, and then we went to the main test office.
We walked through the automatic doors into a somewhat grey room with the Cortex's orange emblem on the floor. There were two doors that led out of the office, one on each side. The office was void except for a couch on one side and the receptionist's desk on the other. We walked up to the desk. The receptionist was a young woman who looked about 23. She had straight black hair and brown eyes. She was sitting in a chair behind the desk and was wearing a navy blue business outfit.
"Good morning."
"Good morning. Can I help you?"
"We are here to take the raven test scheduled for today."
"Oh, your here right on time. The supervising raven just checked in. Alrighty then, can I have your suggested callsigns please?"
"Xero."
"Morrow."
"Blaze."
"Dash."
"Thank you. Now may I have, in the same order, your real names?"
"Xero."
"Umm... Sir may I have your real name?"
"That is my name, and also my callsign."
"Oh, I apologize. Continue please."
"Jack Biggs."
"Samantha Jull."
"Daniel Sheins."
"Thank you. Now through that door is the AC garage. Normally we would have two potential ravens participate in a mission. But since there are four of you, we will have all of you fight a large group of MTs at once. You will still be evaluated by a raven however."
"My I ask which raven will be observing us?"
"Of course, just a second... Oh yes a raven named "Bull"."
"Who is that?"
"I don't know much about him really, but he is ranked A-4 in the arena so you guys better behave yourselves.
"Oh. Huh ok."
Now if you will please enter the garage the raven will assist you with the rest of the test." The receptionist said as she gave us all nametags. And directed us towards the left door.
"Thank you."
"Good luck."
With that done we headed through the door on the left and into the AC garage. As soon as we walked in we were greeted by a friendly hello that came from "Bull" who was standing in front of four standard issue ACs, his AC was behind them. His AC was a large mid-weight that was painted green and black and its head was painted red. The only weapons it had were a powerful, short range laser blade and the Karasawa.
"Hello all of you. Before we get started I think it's a good idea for us to all get to know each other. I'm bull incase you didn't know. May I have your names as well please?"
"I'm Xero."
"Morrow."
"Blaze."
"Dash."
"Alright then with that settled lets go over what is going to happen here today. First of all you are each going to get into one of the ACs before you. After this is accomplished, I hope that you all survive..." he kinda laughed a bit. Though none of us did.
He's got a sense off humor, he can't be that bad. Right?
"You will be taken to a desert area right outside of town, take the time enroute to familiarize yourself with the controls. When we arrive there will be 40 MTs waiting for you."
"40! Isn't that alot!?"
"Not really." He continued, "You will all attack at the same time. You are not assigned any certain targets but you are each required to take out ten MTs. Once you destroy ten then you will disengage and move out of the Battle area. You are NOT to destroy more or less than ten targets each, we don't want anyone getting off easy here. Any questions?"
No answer.
"Alright then, lets get going."
I got to the far right AC, (though it doesn't matter, there all the same) and Morrow got to the next and then Blaze and dash. We walked up to the ACs and a small door opened at the back of the core. Out of the door lowered a small cord with a loop at the end.
"Now don't hold on to the loop and expect to be pulled up." Bull quickly instructed looking at morrow and I, who were picking up the cord and wrapping it around our arms.
Morrow and I both let go of the loops and dropped the cord.
"Put your foot into the loop like so, leaving you "standing" on the cord then grab hold of the cord and ride up." Bull managed to say between everyone's laughing at jack and I.
Once inside the AC we put on the jump suit that was hanging inside the cockpit. After I put on the suit a million tiny lasers shot out of the walls and started tracing my body. After the lasers were done two arm braces, two leg braces, two chest straps and a helmet came out of the walls of the cockpit in their respective places. I put them on and they seemed to fit perfectly. As soon as I tightened the last strap the floor gave way and became the bottom of the cockpit leaving me floating there. The cockpit was now a perfect sphere. "Arcade, tuh, perfect cockpit simulator my ass."
"What?"
"Oh, nothing." No way I was going to admit to anybody that I trained in the arcade at the mall, especially the A-4 ranked raven.
"Lets go. Follow me." And we all followed bull out of the garage. As soon as we were outside I saw bull boost straight up into the air. We all practiced maneuvering around in the ACs and figuring out how to work all of the functions, which wasn't very difficult being as it followed your every move perfectly. On the end of each arm brace was a glove, inside each glove were buttons for each finger. And they all had different functions. One controlled the boosters, one the overboost, one for each off the back weapons etc...
We had been traveling for about 45 minutes and I would say we were about ten miles outside of the city. When bull came over the comm.
"Ok, everybody stop what your doing and line up left to right."
We did just as ordered. And there they were, all forty battle MTs lined up in five rows of eight. The battlefield was completely flat with no cover at all. It was indeed a desert area, the sun beat down on the ground and I could see the heat waves resonating from the golden, sand covered ground.
"Ok guys, being as 40 MTs are quite alot for 4 rookie ravens we have set the MTs to only attack those of you who have fired first. Giving each of you one free shot. So lets say Morrow here fires first, the MTs will only attack him. Then when the next person fires the MTs will attack them also. And as I said before: you are not to destroy more or less than ten each. I will observe from a distance, but I will NOT help under any circumstances. I will also keep score for you guys, it will probably get pretty hectic, and the last thing that you will need to be thinking about is how many you've taken out. Everyone understand the rules of the game?"
"Got it." Blaze was the only one to respond.
"Then everyone fire at will." After he had said everything he overboosted away to quite a distance.
"Here we go!"
I turned on my F.C.S. And targeted the head of the nearest MT. I fired right away, destroying its head.
"Xero: one down." Bull announced over the com.
As soon as I fired the MTs started moving; firing missiles and chain gun rounds everywhere.
"Dash: one down. Morrow: one down."
I didn't have time to watch what others were doing so I didn't try. I flew into the air and locked one missile onto another MT and fired it off. As it was homing in on its target I dodged another six missiles from the right and started firing rifle shots at the MT. I hit it with five shots bye the time the missile got to it, and once it did the MTs upper half exploded.
"Xero: two down, Morrow: three down, Dash: two down, Blaze one-err three down."
One to three, wow that's one hell of a shot. I landed on the ground and immediately overboosted towards another MT and used my blade to quickly cut its legs off at the knee as I flew by. It fell on the ground unable to move. I then turned and boosted to my left to avoid a cloud of chain-gun shots that flew by me destroying another MT behind me. I kept boosting straight and used my blade on another MT, immobilizing it the same way as the last.
"Morrow: six, Xero: five, Blaze: four, Dash: five."
I then jumped behind the MT I had just immobilized and used it for cover from another wave of chain-gun shots. While behind it I locked on another missile. Then I jumped into the air and boosted straight at another MT, as I was flying at it I fired the missile and it plowed into the left arm of the MT destroying the chain gun but at the same time it fired from its other chain gun and hit me right in the core. I did a damage check and there were only a couple big dents. As I was doing the check I started firing a lot of rifle shots at it, eventually destroying it. I then turned to the right just in time to get hit by four missiles; they destroyed the radar on my back, and my missile interception on the core. I jumped into the air again and looked around, I saw an MT walk right under me so I did my favorite thing and dropped straight down. I fired a few shots at it before I landed, as soon as I landed on it I dropped a few more meters, telling me that its legs had been crushed. I drove my blade deep into the center of the MT and brought it back making a huge hole through the MT. Then I jumped of and it exploded before I could fire at it anymore.
"Xero: seven, Morrow: ten. Disengage Morrow. Dash: eight, Blaze, eight."
"Got that, disengaging. Good luck guys." Morrows departing words and he overboosted to meet bull.
"Later morrow." Then I quickly turned my attention back to my enemy, boosting straight ahead and coming up slightly I ended up right above and in front of another MT. I got out my blade and slashed downward as I fell, slicing it in half vertically. I turned to the left and fired four shots into another MT.
"Dash: ten, Blaze: ten, Xero: nine. Dash, Blaze pull out."
"Roger."
"Roger."
Blaze and dash then boosted away from the battle, leaving me with the remaining MT
"One left." I went to check my radar and when I realized that it was gone I started scanning visually. I got hit in the back by two missiles, I turned to face my target and saw a strange looking unit. It was twice as tall as me, it had a core that was tall and thin, I couldn't tell if it went back very far. It had long arms that came out the sides of the core and they stretched to its knees. The legs came from the sides of the bottom of the core and had spikes come out of the front of the upper thigh and lower leg, it also had spikes on each of the feet and three out of the center of the core in a triangle formation. And it had strange weapons in both hands that I couldn't recognize, nothing else. And it also looked as if it was breathing. As soon as I saw it, it disappeared.
"SHIT!!!" I took another hit in the back, this time it destroyed my missile launcher and when I turned around I saw the same thing, a strange looking unit that disappeared as soon as I spotted it. But this time the image blew away like sand in the wind to reveal the final MT standing there. I stood there for a moment thinking about what had just happened and awoke only when bull came over the comm.:
"Are you aborting the mission?"
"No, no, of course not. Just day-dreaming." I boosted straight at it firing my rifle at it the whole time. When I got close enough I brought my blade out and stabbed it straight through the center of the MT. Then I took a few steps back thrust my rifle into the smoking hole that my blade made and started firing off more shots. After I saw shots coming out the back I got my blade out again and slashed straight down; slicing it clean in half. I took a few more steps back and it blew up right in front off me.
"Excellent job, all of you." Bull said and he signaled for us to follow him back to the garage.
"Thanks." But my mind kept wondering back to what I had just seen. I was completely silent for the rest of the trip back until we got to the garage.
"Alright well everyone park your ACs where you found them and hop out." Then he looked at me. "Or whatever's "left" of your AC."
That's when I noticed that my AC was by far the most damaged. "Do I suck that much?"
He laughed at me again, "no your not, the others were just more focused than you."
"Gee, thanks." they wouldn't have been half as focused as they had been if they would've seen what I saw.
"Well then, we all ok? Then lets go back into the office and get your raven licenses all sorted out."
We followed bull back into the office where we came from. When we walked in I saw angel sitting on the couch.
"Hey! What are you doing here?"
"I was waiting for you guys to get back. I came as soon as I saw who was taking the raven test today." "So, bull, were they good little boys and girls? Hmmm?"
"They were, but that one I was worried about." He said, pointing at me.
"Hey! Stoppit! I passed didn't I!" everyone was laughing at me again. "That's not cool you guys."
"Aww, were just kidding. Quit your wining'." Jack was having way too much fun with this.
"Damn you all!!!" I had to laugh at myself on that one. I tried my best to look mad shaking my fist at them. We all laughed a bit harder.
"Well guys, its been fun but I got better things to do than baby-sit a bunch of newbie ravens." And bull turned and walked through the door on the right.
"Alright bull, thanks for watching them. Ill take them from here." Angel yelled after him. He threw his arm up in the air showing he heard as the doors closed behind him.
After the receptionist managed to stop laughing at me she looked up at us all standing at the counter "whew, ok. I need to get the licenses sorted out. While you were taking your test I ran all your names and callsigns through the system, everything checked out. One more thing, do any of you want to be registered in the arena?"
We all said no. I wanted to get used to being a raven for a while before I registered. I didn't know if that was everyone else's reason as well but... God only knows.
"So without further adew I give you your licenses." And the lady behind the desk handed the cards out to their respective owners. "Now is the fun part; you each need to design your ACs. Down that hall is the shop for this garage; we have the best AC parts stock anywhere. They'll have what you want."
"Thank you. Can we take our ACs home today?"
"If you don't mind waiting for them to be assembled. It takes about four hours to assemble an AC from the ground up. You can wait in the raven rec. room while you wait if you like."
"Well I think that's pretty fast so I'm gonna wait here and let them put my AC together."
"Since you're the ride, I guess we're all staying." Blaze didn't sound too happy but too bad. I waited five years to pilot an AC and damnit, I'm gonna take mine home today. If they don't like it, they can lump it.
"Com'on, com'on. Hurry uuup!" Angel was jumping up and down like some hyperactive high school freshman.
"What the hell are you so excited about? Your acting like a little kid that wants to go to the toy store." Angel was pulling on morrows arm now.
"Well, I have to make sure that you guys get good ACs don't I?"
"Huh, whatever." Morrow was quite annoyed.
We all walked to the shop. "Hey-ya chief, what's your name?" I asked the store manager, trying to be nice.
"Wha- oh, oh ya my names Chris. You need a catalogue?" He sounded kinda surprised that I asked for his name.
"Yea Chris, actually we need. One-two-three-four catalogues please."
"Sure here ya go." And he handed us each a small video-pad.
We spent the better part of two hours choosing our parts. I decide on a medium weight AC for the armor and the speed, but it had heavy legs that had been enhanced for increased stability. The legs may have been heavyweights but they were lighter than some of the mid-weights. When I went to click on my selection however angel came over and jumped on my arm. "Oops, oh-well I hope I got it right." I don't know what I clicked on.
"Hey Chris, I'm all ready."
"All right, just tell me your body components now. You can get your weapons when they're done putting it together."
"K, here you go." And I handed him the vid-pad with the desired parts selected.
"Ill have the garage crew get right on it."
The others all did the same shortly after me.
"Ok well it'll be quite awhile before they'll be ready. You can all wait in the nest until there done if you like."
"The nest?"
"Its the rec. room for ravens. When we don't really have anything to do we can go in there. That's also where you can check the arena standings, any info on other ravens if you like and check for any missions."
"Thank you angel, you really saved me a lot of breath." Chris said in response to angels interruption.
"Ha! Your welcome. C'mon lets go."
"Later Chris."
"Ya see-ya."
We went out the door on the right and continued on through the corridor until we came to an elevator. "What floor please?" A computerized voice said as we stepped in.
"The nest please."
"Very well."
We all stepped out of the elevator and into the nest. From where we stood dash pointed out the pool tables in the far corner and we all followed him to the tables and played about four games. Dash ruled the pool table. After that we sat and watched some TV; I tried to get them to watch the Fairly OddParents but for some reason they all insisted on watching the news.
"Why the news? Nothing good ever happens anymore. For instance: why can't they ever report a drug deal that went well? "Here's your money." "Here's your crack, thank you." I just don't understand it." They all laughed at me, again.
I fell asleep on blaze's shoulder and she just let me lay there I guess because I don't remember waking up until I heard our names being called over the intercom, "calling; Xero, Dash, Morrow, blaze. Your ACs are completed. Please report to the shop."
"Yes lets go I have to inspect your ACs."
"Jesus angel..."
So we all followed a hopping Angel back to the shop. "Hey, Chris. How'd everything go?"
"Well, everything except your AC, Xero. We had a bit of a problem attaching your ACs legs to the rest of it."
"What do you mean?"
"Well it was a bit overweight with the light-weight reverse-joint legs that you picked out."
"I didn't pick out light-legs."
"Yes you did, you picked out the first set of reverse-jointed legs."
"Those little things? No I didn't. I picked out the heavy-weights with the advanced stability, I needed it with high the overboost and boosters I had equipped."
"Well you must have clicked the wrong model on the pad that I gave you cause I have it right here. Weren't you looking at the hologram of your AC?"
"Well not really, I was kinda busy trying to get this chick off my back." I pointed at Angel and she stuck her tongue out at me. "Grow up. Your just like a little kid." This time she waved the bird at me. "That's more like it. Well anyway how long will it take you guys to put the right legs on?"
"At least an hour. Sorry but we have to disconnect the current ones which means we have to disconnect all the cables holding it up." He laughed a bit. "Ok well if you want those legs we can put them on but like I said, it will take awhile."
"Aright well, get going on it then. Ill go back to the nest and wait."
"Ok. With that settled, the rest of you can follow me and I will show you to your new ACs."
"Well I'm sorry Xero but I'm gonna head home. It's been fun and all but I kinda wanna test out my AC."
"Ya sorry buddy but I'm with Blaze. Wanna test out my AC then head home. Dash, you in?"
"Ya sure I'll test out my AC but then I can't go home. Vie got some business to tend to."
"Business huh." Morrow slapped him jokingly on the shoulder. "What are you cooking?"
"Well actually it's none of your business."
"Hey there will be no fighting in my shop. Now if you little boys can manage to get along, I can show you three to your ACs to select your weapons." And he ushered them to the door at the side of the desk. "Xero, ill be back shortly to see that legs you want. Please wait here." And he closed the door behind him. Leaving me alone in the room with Angel.
"So do you really think I'm that annoying?" Angel said after about two minutes to break the awkward silence.
"Well not really. I think that you act kinda immature sometimes."
"Really. Hmm. So you think that I should "grow up" huh?"
"A little bit, sometimes." I snuck a sideways glance at her. "But then again it can be good to have a light personality around sometimes."
"I see." "So what are you going to do? Are you going to sit in the nest for another hour?"
"Well I don't really have much of a choice now do I. Unless you have a better idea."
"Well... It is 1:30; do you wanna get some lunch? I know this great Chinese restaurant downtown."
"I'm not really hungry."
"C'mon I can't go alone. I don't have enough credits."
"Ha-ha, nice try. I know as well as you do that most to all ravens are absolutely ROLLING in it. Most have more credits than they now what to do with."
"Fine, you caught me." She giggled a bit. "I've got plenty of money. But I really want you to go. Everyone else left, I can't leave you all alone, I'd feel bad. C'mon, please. hey listen, Ill buy. How does that sound? Huh?" I was expecting her to jump to her knees and beg in a sec. God id pay to see that.
"Ya alright ill go. But I can buy my own food thank you very much. Believe it or not I have a load of credits too. How do you think I'm paying for all of these parts? I may not have known my parents but they did leave me a bank full. We just gotta wait for Chris to get back so that I can tell him what I want my AC to stand on."
"Very well then. We'll go to Chu's Chinese. It's really good, trust me."
"Oh, boy. I can hardly wait." I rolled my eyes, hoping Angel didn't catch it.