Chap 3 Finally a Raven
"where are the warriors!?"
"um... Sir, we just received a message from the two drones that were sent out earlier." seeing the aggravated look on his superiors eyes the soldier quickly continued. "they have reported that they did see the target and the target is moving along as expected sir, But they also reported to have been spotted by the target."
"WHAT!" the officer's face grew red. "we cannot afford any mishaps in this operation! Being spotted prematurely by our target is one such mistake and is therefore unacceptable!" he inhaled. "the target cannot know we are tailing him or he will heighten his awareness and sharpen his skills and senses further if he expects something to happen."
"yes sir."
--------------------------------------------
After sitting there for about ten more minutes, Chris came through the door. "ok, now Xero show me the legs that you did want." and he handed me the same vid-pad that had a hologram of my AC on it.
"you guys put those on there! O my God..." i was laughing at my AC which was a mid-weight with mid arms, head, and core. Plus it had the most powerful boosters and a heavy generator. All standing on tiny little reverse-joint legs. "here let me help you." and i ran down the list of legs until i found the correct set and selected them. "here you go." and i handed him back the vid-pad.
"oh! Those ones, well, that makes sense. Ya those will work great. Alright well, i will get the garage crews working on that. come back in an hour or two."
"o, and could you put the double weapon clips on those legs for me?"
"umm ya, sure."
"thanks, I'll c'ya later."
"C'mon Xero, lets go." angel sounded much more serious now.
"I'm coming." and i walked out the door after angel.
We walked out of the office and into the parking lot where i followed angel to a small sports car that was painted red with gold stripes like her AC, except the AC was camoflauge style.
"Jump in" she told me as she catapaulted herself over the door into the driver seat.
"Is it safe?"
"What safe?"
"Your driving." i laughed a bit as i launched myself over the door and into the passenger seat. She was glaring at me, if looks could kill...
"just shuttup and put your seat-belt on."
"Hey, sorry. I was just joking."
"your the only one laughing." i hate that line.
I got settled in the car and buckled my seat-belt. which was a good idea because as soon as i got the belt on she floored it and the little car went from 0-70 in 3 seconds; in a parking lot!
We got on the freeway and headed North. We had been on the freeway for about ten minutes.
"So, whats your favorite food?"
"Me?" well of course you, you jackass your the only one in the car. "i like italian food the most. But chinese is pretty good to."
"well Xero, there are a few good italian resturants"
"no no, its fine. i like chinese a lot too. Its not like i mind."
"well, ok. anyway, my favorite is chinese food. You probably could have guessed."
"well i thought that you would be more into McDonalds or something like that."
"sorry, i may be white but im not into that kind of gourmet food."
We both laughed.
about half an hour later we made it to the resturant. It was an oriental building that was the same on all sides. The walls were painted red and the roof was green and had large tassles hanging from the corners. The tassles were red and had many green strings hanging from the center of it. The way that the building was designed makes it difficult to find the entrance.
After about ten minutes of searching we finally found the door.
"i've heard a lot of good things about this place, the food is supposed to be just excellant."
We headed inside and seated ourselves at a small table on the wall at the back of the resturant. We picked up the menus already on the table and i started scanning the page.
"can i take your order?" the waiter appeared out of nowhere. He had long black pants, a green overshirt and a red undershirt. His hair was a dark brown and done back very nicely.
"O, yes, sorry. Ill have a large order of sweet and sour soup." Angel looked at me and kinda wispered. "i want some to bring home."
"ok, don't know why you need my permission or why the big secret but ok." "And ill have the mu-shu pork please."
"alright then, thank you. It'll be ready in just a moment." and he departed.
"ya-right." and seeing the scouling look on Angels face i quickly added: "they always say that!"
"whatever." we sat in silence for about ten minutes. "hey, i got the footage that bull relayed to me as you guys were on your test."
"so?"
"myself and about ten other ravens with nothing to do watched the battle from the nest."
"And?"
"well, we were wondering why you stopped fighting at the end?"
"i stopped fighting?" i was playing dumb; i still wasn't sure if i wanted to tell anybody about what happened. My gut felling told me that i didn't want to bring anybody else into it. I don't know why that feeling was so strong either.
"when you got down to the last MT you stopped and just stood there staring off into space. It kinda looked like you were giving up. A lot of the other ravens that were watching thought that you got spooked and freaked out."
"they think i got scared huh? How could they think i got scared? I have been an MT pilot for almost 5 years!"
"i don't know Xero, but you were standing there and you started shaking like crazy."
"I was shaking? I don't remember shaking at all. Thats really weird."
"ya, it- O, the food! Im starving!"
"well, it couldn't have been that intresting if food makes you drop the subject." i kinda muttered under my breath.
"what was that?"
"nothing. Lets eat."
We ate our lunch in record-breaking time. once we finished we went up to the front desk to pay.
"table 6 correct?" the oriental woman at the register asked us.
I looked back at our table and checked the number on the little plastic card on the end, "uh, ya thats right."
"the soup is 7 credits. And the mu-shu pork is 6 credits." i handed the lady my cash card and she swiped it through the computer and handed it back.
"thank you, have a nice day. Come again." And she walked back into the kitchen.
"wha-! O well, i guess i just bought you lunch."
"sorry."
"No big deal."
"alri-"
RING-RING
"O, my phone." "hello?"
"is this Xero?"
"yes it is."
"this is Chris, im calling to tell you that your legs have been replaced and its ready for you to pick up."
"sweet, thanks man. Perfect timing, ill be there in about 45 minutes."
"alright, later."
"c'ya." I clipped the phone back and placed it back in my pocket.
"Was that chris?"
"Ya, he says my AC is done. Lets go and pick it up."
"ya. We can fight."
"What!? us fight each other?"
"well, in the simulator. you can download your AC designs into the simulator and the computer creates it in the simulation."
"O. that sounds pretty cool."
"Ya, its a lot of fun. Especially when you beat them. Or, more accuratly, when i beat you."
"Hey, just 'cause your a girl doesn't mean im gonna let you win."
"ya... right."
We left the resturant and got back in the car and started driving back towards the garage.
"hey, I wanna tell you somethin'." angel was yelling so i could hear her over the wind blasting through the convertable.
"what?" i was now yelling back.
"i, just wanted to let you know not to get mad if some of the other ravens start to... umm, look down on you or talk down to you."
"why would they do that?"
"because when we were watching the video of your test; when you started tripping out i heard some really rude comments about you. They thought that you were really scared and freaking out."
"aww, man. Thats gonna suck."
"probably, sorry but thats what it looked like."
"so you were making the comments too huh?!"
"no no, i would never. Im just saying that its not really fair for you to get mad at them when they don't know what they're talkng about."
"its not fair for them to insult me when they don't know what they're talking about!"
"THEYRE WAS NO WAY TO TELL!!! YOU LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE FREAKING OUT!"
"whatever." neither of us said another word about it for the rest of the way back to the garage.
When we got back we jumped out of the car and started walking towards the office that we entered first. Right before we entered the door angel spun around, "hey, im sorry about the incident in the car, i really am."
"its ok. Its just frustrating when your brand new class of piers starts making assumptions before they even know you."
"i can understand that. Peace?"
i put my hand out for a shake.
she kinda looked at my hand like i was a dumbass then she shook my hand. "peace." it was then that i realized that women dont usually take handshakes as a peace offering. But it was to late so o-well.
"cool, so then our little battle is back on then?"
"it was never off. But i probably would have fought better if i was still mad at you."
she shook her head. "tuh."
"lets go get my AC."
we continued through the doors and waved at the receptionist as we passed. We arrived at the shop and chris was waiting at the counter reading a magazine on new AC parts.
"Hey chris. Is my AC ready to go?"
"Oh, hi. yes it is. Follow me and we shall suit you up and pick your weapons."
"alrighty then." i turned around to angel. "are you coming?"
"i guess." angel shrugged and followed chris and i through the back door.
We walked through a few different doors and out onto a bridge that spanned the hanger. "did we get your paint job right?"
"what? I never told you about paint." i looked across the garage hangar and saw my AC. It had a white and gold paintjob with blue outlines. It looked beautiful.
"Xero?"
"wha- O!" i was standing there with my mouth hanging open; gawking at my AC.
"hahaha. we just took the paintjob from your MT. well, lets get your weapons sorted out."
"cool." we followed chris down a flight of steps to the ground floor and through another door that led out of the hanger.
"ok, now here is the weapon storage bay." he flicked a switch on the wall behind us and the whole area beamed with bright light coming from the walls and ceiling. "on that console over there is a readout on every part that we have in stock. Just step up and select."
"Ok." it only took me about three minutes to decide. mainly because i had already chosen the parts and weapons long before. I had an 8-lock, hi-act missile launcher on my back; along with a lightweight laser cannon, and in my right and left hands i had 72 round solid shell shotguns.
"good choices. Ill have them moved to your AC. You can equip them yourself."
"ok... I dont really know how but ill try."
"you'll figure it out." he led us out of the weapons bay back into the hanger with my AC. I stood there and admired it. within minutes ceiling cranes began moving my weapons into the hanger. And placing them in front of my AC.
"what are you waiting for?" angel spoke up from behind me, making me jump.
"What are you talking about angel?"
"i mean: go get in your AC and equip your weapons."
"oh, ok. Well here i go." And I ran back up the flight of stairs that we came down before.
"Hurry up. We still have that battle!" she called from below.
"ya-ya..." i ran up the catwalk that we walked over before and walked a bridge over to my AC cockpit. I jumped onto my core and walked up to the top. When i got right in front of the head there was a small keyboard for imputing my password to open the top hatch. I hadn't set a password yet so i just clicked OPEN and the hatch slid back allowing me access to the cockpit. I jumped in and landed on a small 4x4 platform inside the spherical cockpit. Hanging off the left side of the platform was a black pilot suit. i put on the suit and found that it was quit big, after i put on the suit however, lights flickered on all over the cockpit and thousands of tiny lasers shot out of the sides of the cockpit and scanned my body from head to toe. After the lasers had finished the suit tightened and fit my body perfectly. After this the lights turned of inside the cockpit and the whole inside of the cockpit lit up, blinding me temporarily. When my eyes adjusted i could see that the whole cockpit perfectly mirrored the outside of the AC.
"this AC unit is now fully operational. Would you like to assign a name to this AC?" the harsh computer voice startled me.
"umm... Well?" i didn't want to use the same name as my MT. "Revolution."
"very well, this AC unit will now be known as "Revolution". what is the name of the pilot of Revolution?"
"Xero."
"good day to you Xero. Are you ready to initiate normal mode?"
"yes." as soon as i said that the platform that i was standing on broke apart and became braces around my calves and feet and they held me in the air. a small tray came out of the wall in front of me with a pair of black gloves on it.
"take the gloves please."
"um, ya." i put the gloves on and could feel hundreds of tiny sensors inside them along with four bottons in each glove. two in each little finger to lock the hand in place around an object or weapon and one to use a back weapon that was equipped to the same side as that hand, one in each ring finger for the overboost, and one in each middle finger to control the regular boosters.
"hey kid, try moving around."
"kid? Im a kid now?" I'm probably older than he is! i guess these people are going to talk down to me. I took a step forward and felt the AC move in response. I lifted my arm up to my face and moved my fingers around; the AC mimicked my moves exactly. "hey how come the test ACs aren't set up like this?"
"you mean the cockpit controls? well, they're just test ACs and don't require much presicion for the missions that we would give you for a test. You on the other hand may have a mission where you would have to handle vital equipment or maybe carry a person. So your personal AC would need much more precision in its movements."
"i understand." I moved my other arm around and watched as the AC did the same. I tried punching and felt the rest of the AC try to move with the momentum of the arm.
"there are no weapons equiped on this AC unit." the computer's roughly female voice spoke up.
"computer, how do i equip weapons on the AC?"
"hand weapons are simply picked up. Back weapons must be attached. To attach them, pick them up and line the joint on the weapon up with the joint on the core. Then i will guide the controls and complete the connection."
"ok, the first is a laser cannon on the left shoulder."
"pick up the weapon and position it near the left shoulder." i picked up the cannon as instructed and lined up the joints as best i could and the computer took over the controls and connected the cannon. I did this again with the missile launcher. After the missiles were connected i picked up the shotguns.
"chris? Do these legs have the double weapon clamps like i requested?"
"yes they do. You can click two weapons to each leg."
"thanks." I looked down at angel and chris. "so angel, what do you think?" i could hear my own voice ringing throughout the hanger from my ACs speaker.
"well, i must say it looks pretty impresive. But it might be a little slow."
"a little slow? it better not be slow! I got the FLEETs on this thing; do you know how much those cost!?"
"well not exactly. I have the refined FLEETs on my AC so mine is pretty fast."
"whatever, you ready for our little battle?" I lifted my shotguns and tried to look like I was ready for a challenge.
"always." She turned back and started heading for the catwalk that we came in from.
"now hold your horses Xero!" Chris cut in quickly. "Im gonna open up the hanger doors, i want you to take your AC out to the desert and get used to it before you do anything else."
"like where we had the raven test?"
"thats fine. But wherever is ok. Just as long as your away from the city."
"alright."
"im opening the doors."
"hey Xero! when you get back meet me in the nest!"
the doors to my left opened wide allowing me access to the outside world. I turned to my left and walked up to the opening.
"ok, here i go." and i ran out of the hanger.
the AC followed my movements perfectly and ran as i did through the city. I ran and walked for about an hour until i finally cleared the city. Once i was in the desert i wanted tried out my boosters so i pushed the button in my left glove and found myself strafe-boosting to the right. "so my left glove only ignights the left booster which will shoot me to the right." that works. I regained my balance and pressed both buttons at the same time and shot straight up, jerking my head back in the process. I got to 1000 feet and began free-falling. At about 500 feet i hit the boosters again to see the recovery speed and to slow myself down bu tonce again my head was ripped back as I flew upward. "slow my ass!!" I decided to feather boost the rest of the way down. Upon reaching the ground i leaned forward and pressed the boosters; jetting me forward and i checked my speedometer; it claimed i was going 227 mph. "whoa!" i let off the boosters and decided to try out the overboost. I regained my balence and pushed both buttons in the ring finger. I could hear the back of the core click and open, then the whine of the engines as the core powered up. When the core reached the top of its whine it exploded with energy, launching me forward. My head was jerked back painfully as my eyes blurred from all the blood rushing to the back off my head when the AC shot forward. The noise was unbelievable. I straigned my neck to check my speedometer and it read 686 mph, i was able to glance at it just before i ran out of energy and it shut off. I flew forward and landed on my feet but i was still traveling at about 500 mph and i flew off my feet and slamed into the ground head- first. i slid for about 350 meters before i skidded to a stop.
"hey! Are you ok?!"
"wha-?" it was angel in her AC.
"An-gel? Im ov-er he-re!"
"yea, that overboost got ya huh?"
i managed to struggle to my feet but fell back to my knees. My shotguns were no longer in my hands. "wow, that hurts. I have the worst headache."
"i bet you do. Here i'll help you up."
"thanks." she walked over and grabbed my AC under the shoulders and picked my up. "computer do a damage check."
"head unit is moderatley damaged."
"ok, well i could get that fixed in a few hours." "thanks again angel, why are you out here and where did i drop my shotguns?"
"i saw you drop them right when your AC started the overboost. And im here to tell you that i accepted a mission for the two of us to take on."
"you what!? Look, angel, i dont even know how to pilot this thing yet!"
"its no big deal. We just have to take out a few turrets and AI MTs at another one of those computer controlled bases."
"another base take-over huh? Oh, whatever. I just sighed and decided to go with it. Maybe the practice would do me some good. "Where are my shotguns?"
"just turn on the weapon beacon and follow the blip."
"computer activate the weapon locator."
"locator activated." a small circular radar screen came up with two green dots on it.
"angel, how does the weapon locator work?"
"well, i beleive that your AC sends out a signal that all modern weapons pick up and then they give off a radar signal."
"im getting two weapon signals. They are pretty close together, i think those might be my shotguns." And I boosted away toward the blips on my screen.
"alright, im right behind you."
I boosted about 17 miles back the way i "think" i came towards the blips.
"theres my shotguns; are they damaged?" I looked over them before picking them up to see if anything would fall off if I did pick them up.
"i dont think so. you dropped them right as you took off, i dont think that they traveled too far."
i picked them up and locked them in my hands. "computer, do a damage check on the hand weapons."
"there is no damage to either weapon."
"good. Well, i guess we better get going on this mission then huh?"
"alright, then lets-"
"no, wait! Aaaww damnit, i forgot my other weapons."
"what other weapons?"
"i got double weapon clips on my legs for a reason." i said pointing out the magnetic clamps on the sides of my legs.
"oh, well, what do you wanna do? We have six hours to rout this base, but the sooner the better."
"here ill call ahead to chris and havee him ring up the parts and get them ready."
"alright, lets go then."
i clipped my two shotguns to my leg clips and qued up the radio to chris. "hey chris you there?"
"wha- that you Xero? What are you calling me on the radio for? Oh, and how did your little test run go?"
I hit the overboost and was able to control myself a little better this time, letting off before i ran out of energy. "im calling ahead to tell you to get an advanced, long range, sniper rifle and an 800 round machinegun readdy for me. Go ahead and pay for them with the same account that i used last time. And the little test was ok." as i finished i started the overboost again.
"wow, quite a mouthful. Well ok, ill have them all ready for you to pick up when you get here. Are you grabbing them and then going on a mission or something?"
"thats exactly it." i switched off the overboost again to let my generator recharge. "angel signed herself and me up for a mission while i was gone and came out here to get me."
"well that sounds like a bunch of fun." he laughed a bit. "alright, ill have them ready for you when you get back."
I hit the overboost again. By now im finding myself able to control the overboost just fine. "thanks chris, i owe you one."
"where are the warriors!?"
"um... Sir, we just received a message from the two drones that were sent out earlier." seeing the aggravated look on his superiors eyes the soldier quickly continued. "they have reported that they did see the target and the target is moving along as expected sir, But they also reported to have been spotted by the target."
"WHAT!" the officer's face grew red. "we cannot afford any mishaps in this operation! Being spotted prematurely by our target is one such mistake and is therefore unacceptable!" he inhaled. "the target cannot know we are tailing him or he will heighten his awareness and sharpen his skills and senses further if he expects something to happen."
"yes sir."
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After sitting there for about ten more minutes, Chris came through the door. "ok, now Xero show me the legs that you did want." and he handed me the same vid-pad that had a hologram of my AC on it.
"you guys put those on there! O my God..." i was laughing at my AC which was a mid-weight with mid arms, head, and core. Plus it had the most powerful boosters and a heavy generator. All standing on tiny little reverse-joint legs. "here let me help you." and i ran down the list of legs until i found the correct set and selected them. "here you go." and i handed him back the vid-pad.
"oh! Those ones, well, that makes sense. Ya those will work great. Alright well, i will get the garage crews working on that. come back in an hour or two."
"o, and could you put the double weapon clips on those legs for me?"
"umm ya, sure."
"thanks, I'll c'ya later."
"C'mon Xero, lets go." angel sounded much more serious now.
"I'm coming." and i walked out the door after angel.
We walked out of the office and into the parking lot where i followed angel to a small sports car that was painted red with gold stripes like her AC, except the AC was camoflauge style.
"Jump in" she told me as she catapaulted herself over the door into the driver seat.
"Is it safe?"
"What safe?"
"Your driving." i laughed a bit as i launched myself over the door and into the passenger seat. She was glaring at me, if looks could kill...
"just shuttup and put your seat-belt on."
"Hey, sorry. I was just joking."
"your the only one laughing." i hate that line.
I got settled in the car and buckled my seat-belt. which was a good idea because as soon as i got the belt on she floored it and the little car went from 0-70 in 3 seconds; in a parking lot!
We got on the freeway and headed North. We had been on the freeway for about ten minutes.
"So, whats your favorite food?"
"Me?" well of course you, you jackass your the only one in the car. "i like italian food the most. But chinese is pretty good to."
"well Xero, there are a few good italian resturants"
"no no, its fine. i like chinese a lot too. Its not like i mind."
"well, ok. anyway, my favorite is chinese food. You probably could have guessed."
"well i thought that you would be more into McDonalds or something like that."
"sorry, i may be white but im not into that kind of gourmet food."
We both laughed.
about half an hour later we made it to the resturant. It was an oriental building that was the same on all sides. The walls were painted red and the roof was green and had large tassles hanging from the corners. The tassles were red and had many green strings hanging from the center of it. The way that the building was designed makes it difficult to find the entrance.
After about ten minutes of searching we finally found the door.
"i've heard a lot of good things about this place, the food is supposed to be just excellant."
We headed inside and seated ourselves at a small table on the wall at the back of the resturant. We picked up the menus already on the table and i started scanning the page.
"can i take your order?" the waiter appeared out of nowhere. He had long black pants, a green overshirt and a red undershirt. His hair was a dark brown and done back very nicely.
"O, yes, sorry. Ill have a large order of sweet and sour soup." Angel looked at me and kinda wispered. "i want some to bring home."
"ok, don't know why you need my permission or why the big secret but ok." "And ill have the mu-shu pork please."
"alright then, thank you. It'll be ready in just a moment." and he departed.
"ya-right." and seeing the scouling look on Angels face i quickly added: "they always say that!"
"whatever." we sat in silence for about ten minutes. "hey, i got the footage that bull relayed to me as you guys were on your test."
"so?"
"myself and about ten other ravens with nothing to do watched the battle from the nest."
"And?"
"well, we were wondering why you stopped fighting at the end?"
"i stopped fighting?" i was playing dumb; i still wasn't sure if i wanted to tell anybody about what happened. My gut felling told me that i didn't want to bring anybody else into it. I don't know why that feeling was so strong either.
"when you got down to the last MT you stopped and just stood there staring off into space. It kinda looked like you were giving up. A lot of the other ravens that were watching thought that you got spooked and freaked out."
"they think i got scared huh? How could they think i got scared? I have been an MT pilot for almost 5 years!"
"i don't know Xero, but you were standing there and you started shaking like crazy."
"I was shaking? I don't remember shaking at all. Thats really weird."
"ya, it- O, the food! Im starving!"
"well, it couldn't have been that intresting if food makes you drop the subject." i kinda muttered under my breath.
"what was that?"
"nothing. Lets eat."
We ate our lunch in record-breaking time. once we finished we went up to the front desk to pay.
"table 6 correct?" the oriental woman at the register asked us.
I looked back at our table and checked the number on the little plastic card on the end, "uh, ya thats right."
"the soup is 7 credits. And the mu-shu pork is 6 credits." i handed the lady my cash card and she swiped it through the computer and handed it back.
"thank you, have a nice day. Come again." And she walked back into the kitchen.
"wha-! O well, i guess i just bought you lunch."
"sorry."
"No big deal."
"alri-"
RING-RING
"O, my phone." "hello?"
"is this Xero?"
"yes it is."
"this is Chris, im calling to tell you that your legs have been replaced and its ready for you to pick up."
"sweet, thanks man. Perfect timing, ill be there in about 45 minutes."
"alright, later."
"c'ya." I clipped the phone back and placed it back in my pocket.
"Was that chris?"
"Ya, he says my AC is done. Lets go and pick it up."
"ya. We can fight."
"What!? us fight each other?"
"well, in the simulator. you can download your AC designs into the simulator and the computer creates it in the simulation."
"O. that sounds pretty cool."
"Ya, its a lot of fun. Especially when you beat them. Or, more accuratly, when i beat you."
"Hey, just 'cause your a girl doesn't mean im gonna let you win."
"ya... right."
We left the resturant and got back in the car and started driving back towards the garage.
"hey, I wanna tell you somethin'." angel was yelling so i could hear her over the wind blasting through the convertable.
"what?" i was now yelling back.
"i, just wanted to let you know not to get mad if some of the other ravens start to... umm, look down on you or talk down to you."
"why would they do that?"
"because when we were watching the video of your test; when you started tripping out i heard some really rude comments about you. They thought that you were really scared and freaking out."
"aww, man. Thats gonna suck."
"probably, sorry but thats what it looked like."
"so you were making the comments too huh?!"
"no no, i would never. Im just saying that its not really fair for you to get mad at them when they don't know what they're talkng about."
"its not fair for them to insult me when they don't know what they're talking about!"
"THEYRE WAS NO WAY TO TELL!!! YOU LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE FREAKING OUT!"
"whatever." neither of us said another word about it for the rest of the way back to the garage.
When we got back we jumped out of the car and started walking towards the office that we entered first. Right before we entered the door angel spun around, "hey, im sorry about the incident in the car, i really am."
"its ok. Its just frustrating when your brand new class of piers starts making assumptions before they even know you."
"i can understand that. Peace?"
i put my hand out for a shake.
she kinda looked at my hand like i was a dumbass then she shook my hand. "peace." it was then that i realized that women dont usually take handshakes as a peace offering. But it was to late so o-well.
"cool, so then our little battle is back on then?"
"it was never off. But i probably would have fought better if i was still mad at you."
she shook her head. "tuh."
"lets go get my AC."
we continued through the doors and waved at the receptionist as we passed. We arrived at the shop and chris was waiting at the counter reading a magazine on new AC parts.
"Hey chris. Is my AC ready to go?"
"Oh, hi. yes it is. Follow me and we shall suit you up and pick your weapons."
"alrighty then." i turned around to angel. "are you coming?"
"i guess." angel shrugged and followed chris and i through the back door.
We walked through a few different doors and out onto a bridge that spanned the hanger. "did we get your paint job right?"
"what? I never told you about paint." i looked across the garage hangar and saw my AC. It had a white and gold paintjob with blue outlines. It looked beautiful.
"Xero?"
"wha- O!" i was standing there with my mouth hanging open; gawking at my AC.
"hahaha. we just took the paintjob from your MT. well, lets get your weapons sorted out."
"cool." we followed chris down a flight of steps to the ground floor and through another door that led out of the hanger.
"ok, now here is the weapon storage bay." he flicked a switch on the wall behind us and the whole area beamed with bright light coming from the walls and ceiling. "on that console over there is a readout on every part that we have in stock. Just step up and select."
"Ok." it only took me about three minutes to decide. mainly because i had already chosen the parts and weapons long before. I had an 8-lock, hi-act missile launcher on my back; along with a lightweight laser cannon, and in my right and left hands i had 72 round solid shell shotguns.
"good choices. Ill have them moved to your AC. You can equip them yourself."
"ok... I dont really know how but ill try."
"you'll figure it out." he led us out of the weapons bay back into the hanger with my AC. I stood there and admired it. within minutes ceiling cranes began moving my weapons into the hanger. And placing them in front of my AC.
"what are you waiting for?" angel spoke up from behind me, making me jump.
"What are you talking about angel?"
"i mean: go get in your AC and equip your weapons."
"oh, ok. Well here i go." And I ran back up the flight of stairs that we came down before.
"Hurry up. We still have that battle!" she called from below.
"ya-ya..." i ran up the catwalk that we walked over before and walked a bridge over to my AC cockpit. I jumped onto my core and walked up to the top. When i got right in front of the head there was a small keyboard for imputing my password to open the top hatch. I hadn't set a password yet so i just clicked OPEN and the hatch slid back allowing me access to the cockpit. I jumped in and landed on a small 4x4 platform inside the spherical cockpit. Hanging off the left side of the platform was a black pilot suit. i put on the suit and found that it was quit big, after i put on the suit however, lights flickered on all over the cockpit and thousands of tiny lasers shot out of the sides of the cockpit and scanned my body from head to toe. After the lasers had finished the suit tightened and fit my body perfectly. After this the lights turned of inside the cockpit and the whole inside of the cockpit lit up, blinding me temporarily. When my eyes adjusted i could see that the whole cockpit perfectly mirrored the outside of the AC.
"this AC unit is now fully operational. Would you like to assign a name to this AC?" the harsh computer voice startled me.
"umm... Well?" i didn't want to use the same name as my MT. "Revolution."
"very well, this AC unit will now be known as "Revolution". what is the name of the pilot of Revolution?"
"Xero."
"good day to you Xero. Are you ready to initiate normal mode?"
"yes." as soon as i said that the platform that i was standing on broke apart and became braces around my calves and feet and they held me in the air. a small tray came out of the wall in front of me with a pair of black gloves on it.
"take the gloves please."
"um, ya." i put the gloves on and could feel hundreds of tiny sensors inside them along with four bottons in each glove. two in each little finger to lock the hand in place around an object or weapon and one to use a back weapon that was equipped to the same side as that hand, one in each ring finger for the overboost, and one in each middle finger to control the regular boosters.
"hey kid, try moving around."
"kid? Im a kid now?" I'm probably older than he is! i guess these people are going to talk down to me. I took a step forward and felt the AC move in response. I lifted my arm up to my face and moved my fingers around; the AC mimicked my moves exactly. "hey how come the test ACs aren't set up like this?"
"you mean the cockpit controls? well, they're just test ACs and don't require much presicion for the missions that we would give you for a test. You on the other hand may have a mission where you would have to handle vital equipment or maybe carry a person. So your personal AC would need much more precision in its movements."
"i understand." I moved my other arm around and watched as the AC did the same. I tried punching and felt the rest of the AC try to move with the momentum of the arm.
"there are no weapons equiped on this AC unit." the computer's roughly female voice spoke up.
"computer, how do i equip weapons on the AC?"
"hand weapons are simply picked up. Back weapons must be attached. To attach them, pick them up and line the joint on the weapon up with the joint on the core. Then i will guide the controls and complete the connection."
"ok, the first is a laser cannon on the left shoulder."
"pick up the weapon and position it near the left shoulder." i picked up the cannon as instructed and lined up the joints as best i could and the computer took over the controls and connected the cannon. I did this again with the missile launcher. After the missiles were connected i picked up the shotguns.
"chris? Do these legs have the double weapon clamps like i requested?"
"yes they do. You can click two weapons to each leg."
"thanks." I looked down at angel and chris. "so angel, what do you think?" i could hear my own voice ringing throughout the hanger from my ACs speaker.
"well, i must say it looks pretty impresive. But it might be a little slow."
"a little slow? it better not be slow! I got the FLEETs on this thing; do you know how much those cost!?"
"well not exactly. I have the refined FLEETs on my AC so mine is pretty fast."
"whatever, you ready for our little battle?" I lifted my shotguns and tried to look like I was ready for a challenge.
"always." She turned back and started heading for the catwalk that we came in from.
"now hold your horses Xero!" Chris cut in quickly. "Im gonna open up the hanger doors, i want you to take your AC out to the desert and get used to it before you do anything else."
"like where we had the raven test?"
"thats fine. But wherever is ok. Just as long as your away from the city."
"alright."
"im opening the doors."
"hey Xero! when you get back meet me in the nest!"
the doors to my left opened wide allowing me access to the outside world. I turned to my left and walked up to the opening.
"ok, here i go." and i ran out of the hanger.
the AC followed my movements perfectly and ran as i did through the city. I ran and walked for about an hour until i finally cleared the city. Once i was in the desert i wanted tried out my boosters so i pushed the button in my left glove and found myself strafe-boosting to the right. "so my left glove only ignights the left booster which will shoot me to the right." that works. I regained my balance and pressed both buttons at the same time and shot straight up, jerking my head back in the process. I got to 1000 feet and began free-falling. At about 500 feet i hit the boosters again to see the recovery speed and to slow myself down bu tonce again my head was ripped back as I flew upward. "slow my ass!!" I decided to feather boost the rest of the way down. Upon reaching the ground i leaned forward and pressed the boosters; jetting me forward and i checked my speedometer; it claimed i was going 227 mph. "whoa!" i let off the boosters and decided to try out the overboost. I regained my balence and pushed both buttons in the ring finger. I could hear the back of the core click and open, then the whine of the engines as the core powered up. When the core reached the top of its whine it exploded with energy, launching me forward. My head was jerked back painfully as my eyes blurred from all the blood rushing to the back off my head when the AC shot forward. The noise was unbelievable. I straigned my neck to check my speedometer and it read 686 mph, i was able to glance at it just before i ran out of energy and it shut off. I flew forward and landed on my feet but i was still traveling at about 500 mph and i flew off my feet and slamed into the ground head- first. i slid for about 350 meters before i skidded to a stop.
"hey! Are you ok?!"
"wha-?" it was angel in her AC.
"An-gel? Im ov-er he-re!"
"yea, that overboost got ya huh?"
i managed to struggle to my feet but fell back to my knees. My shotguns were no longer in my hands. "wow, that hurts. I have the worst headache."
"i bet you do. Here i'll help you up."
"thanks." she walked over and grabbed my AC under the shoulders and picked my up. "computer do a damage check."
"head unit is moderatley damaged."
"ok, well i could get that fixed in a few hours." "thanks again angel, why are you out here and where did i drop my shotguns?"
"i saw you drop them right when your AC started the overboost. And im here to tell you that i accepted a mission for the two of us to take on."
"you what!? Look, angel, i dont even know how to pilot this thing yet!"
"its no big deal. We just have to take out a few turrets and AI MTs at another one of those computer controlled bases."
"another base take-over huh? Oh, whatever. I just sighed and decided to go with it. Maybe the practice would do me some good. "Where are my shotguns?"
"just turn on the weapon beacon and follow the blip."
"computer activate the weapon locator."
"locator activated." a small circular radar screen came up with two green dots on it.
"angel, how does the weapon locator work?"
"well, i beleive that your AC sends out a signal that all modern weapons pick up and then they give off a radar signal."
"im getting two weapon signals. They are pretty close together, i think those might be my shotguns." And I boosted away toward the blips on my screen.
"alright, im right behind you."
I boosted about 17 miles back the way i "think" i came towards the blips.
"theres my shotguns; are they damaged?" I looked over them before picking them up to see if anything would fall off if I did pick them up.
"i dont think so. you dropped them right as you took off, i dont think that they traveled too far."
i picked them up and locked them in my hands. "computer, do a damage check on the hand weapons."
"there is no damage to either weapon."
"good. Well, i guess we better get going on this mission then huh?"
"alright, then lets-"
"no, wait! Aaaww damnit, i forgot my other weapons."
"what other weapons?"
"i got double weapon clips on my legs for a reason." i said pointing out the magnetic clamps on the sides of my legs.
"oh, well, what do you wanna do? We have six hours to rout this base, but the sooner the better."
"here ill call ahead to chris and havee him ring up the parts and get them ready."
"alright, lets go then."
i clipped my two shotguns to my leg clips and qued up the radio to chris. "hey chris you there?"
"wha- that you Xero? What are you calling me on the radio for? Oh, and how did your little test run go?"
I hit the overboost and was able to control myself a little better this time, letting off before i ran out of energy. "im calling ahead to tell you to get an advanced, long range, sniper rifle and an 800 round machinegun readdy for me. Go ahead and pay for them with the same account that i used last time. And the little test was ok." as i finished i started the overboost again.
"wow, quite a mouthful. Well ok, ill have them all ready for you to pick up when you get here. Are you grabbing them and then going on a mission or something?"
"thats exactly it." i switched off the overboost again to let my generator recharge. "angel signed herself and me up for a mission while i was gone and came out here to get me."
"well that sounds like a bunch of fun." he laughed a bit. "alright, ill have them ready for you when you get back."
I hit the overboost again. By now im finding myself able to control the overboost just fine. "thanks chris, i owe you one."