Disclaimer: See previous chapters

Chap. 25

Majestic Force - Mobius, Zero, Shade, Haunted, Silver Fox, Corpse Maker

A clan created from the top-ranked Ravens of the Arena, they reign as the top clan among the others. With each member being a deadly opponent, combined, they are nearly unstoppable.

Motto – "We are…perfection!"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Blood Omen – Cursed One, Vampire, Dark Ritual, Broken Seal, Pentagram, Unholy

A group that practice occult arts, as Ravens they are equally as frightening. It is said than whenever they defeat an opponent, they take their souls as well.

Motto – "Your souls are ours to do as we please."

The city was literally torn asunder as the two groups of machines waged their battle against each other. People scrambled and ran for their lives as buildings exploded and fell apart, results of the weapon fire that scattered from the opposing groups. Koemai and Diana scrambled along with the other people as they sought to avoid the increasing battlefield.

"What the hell are they doing?" Diana exclaimed through the loud rumblings. "Battling in a populated area like this. It's insane!"

Koemai nodded. "Yeah. We have to get back to the Cortex now."

She blinked. "What?"

"We have to get these guys out of here before it goes too far."

Another loud rumble shook the pavement which they stood on, nearly making them fall to the ground. Annoyed, Diana muttered. "I think it's a little late for that, but let's go."

Meanwhile, at the Cortex itself, Elijah ran out of the simulator when he heard the loud explosion that where coming from outside. Looking out, he saw several clouds of smoke over the city, combined with various weapon fire that streaked across the skies.

'What the hell? A battle within the city?' The Cortex and the surrounding city was deemed untouchable for both battles and missions. The corporations wouldn't dare attack the Cortex for fear that of retaliation from the Ravens as well as not to disturb the business relationship they had with the mercenaries. Thus it was deemed off limits and strangely enough, the safest place from Armored Cores. A battle within the city was unbelieveable. And yet, that is what was happening right before his eyes. As Elijah looked on, a whirling sound caught his attention and he looked over to the right were Baron was just opening his AC cockpit.

"Baron! What's going on?"

The Raven looked up from the cockpit and answered. "A battle with Majectic Force and Blood Omen clans have broken out in the city."

Needless to say, his response was one of shock. "Are they crazy?" Baron and began to enter his cockpit once again. Seeing this, Elijah asked. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I'm going to stop them."

Elijah's shock came back. 'Has everyone gone crazy!' "Are you crazy? You can't stop them by yourself."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Baron yelled from inside the cockpit. "Get your $$ moving then!".

Elijah shook his head, think about just how insane it was for two Raven to try and stop a battle between the two highest ranking Raven clans. But as he said before, everyone has gone crazy. 'Why should I be any different?'

"Ah, what the hell..."

Sliding down the ladded, he ran to his hanger and climbed up to Havoc. Entering the cockpit, he set the controls and readied all weapon systems

Main system. Engaging combat mode.

The golden eyes of Havoc lit up and the machines stomped out from its holding area. The hanger door shifted open and Havoc looked out, accompanied by the White Wolf AC. The two machine looked at each other briefly before looking out into the smoking city. Then simultaneously, the boosters flared to life and the machines flew in through the city.

"So what's the plan?" Elijah asked through the comm.

Baron replied after a bit of silence. "Actually, I haven't thought of one yet."

"What!"

"Hey, I'm making this up as I go along." he quickly whipped out.

Elijah shook his head, in disbelief. He should have know better that to get himself into this. He acted impulsively again. Still, they did have to do something. Now they need a plan as to what.

"We have to draw them out of the city." Elijah said.

"Okay, that's an idea." Baron agreed. "How do we do it?"

"I don't know." Elijah replied. "I'm making this up as I go along."

Baron blinked and then let out a short laugh. "We're screwed."

"Pretty much, but that's the plan and that's what we're going with."

"Roger that. Let's go."

Agood distance away from the Cortex, Charles and Ellie were paying keen attention to the battle that erupted within the city.

"Blood Omen and Majestic Force." Ellie said softly. "This is terrible."

"It looks like the situation has changed." Charles said in response. "We may have to make a move sooner than projected."

"Hm." Then two more ACs flew into the scene, barreling straight into the city-turned-battlefield. Ellie recognized them immediately. Havoc and White Wolf.

"Those ACs... Elijah and Baron." Charles confirmed.

Ellie shook her head in disbelief. "I swear those two rush into everything."

"The joys of youth."

With a sigh, Ellie began to turn and walk, but Charles turned his head.

"Don't."

"Huh?"

"There's no point in joining them."

Ellie turned to him, again in disbelief. "What do you mean? We can't just leave it like this."

"I'm not saying to." he replied. "But not with ACs. That'll just cause more damage." He looked back out into the city. "And more death."

Ellie looked out again and realized that he was right. To go out there in her own AC would only do more damage and do more harm than good. 'And I was just berating them for being reckless' she mused. Returning to the situation..."Then what do you suggest?"

Charles turned around and began to walk toward the Cortex. "Well, since they're already out there, might as well put them to good use."

The streets of the city were all but deserted, with a few people still scattering to get away from the battle. Debris and rubble was everywhere and a couple of bodies were littered beneath. The two Ravens continued on their way to the Cortex, seeming to ignore the bodies when in fact they were simply used to the sight of death. But the situation was out of control and they had to survive first and grieve later. Yet Diana stopped to take in the sight.

"This is...too terrible."

Koemai stopped in his tracks and turned to her. Her gaze was slowly sweeping the landscape and he could just make out a single tear in her eyes. Moving over to her, he placed his hands on her shoulders. He wanted to say something, but he didn't know what. He just didn't want to see her sad. Diana looked up at his eyes and seeing his concern, felt reassured somehow.

"Thank you."

"You're...welcome." he replied, a bit confused but glad that she wasn't down anymore. But suddenly an energy blast hit the side of the building next to them, ripping through and sending the top half of the building falling toward them.

"No!"

Koemai suddenly tightened his hold on Diana and swung around, tossing her away as the debris fell down. Diana hit the floor and roll as the dust kicked up. It had happened so fast to her that she was a bit dizzy for a while before she got up, coughing from the dust that swarmed the air. Waving it away, she desperately looked around.

"Koemai!"

The dust settled, revealing the new level of debris that was before her. In panic, she moved toward the debris, prying the debris away in fear of what may have happened, screaming all the way.

"Koemai! Koemai!"

"Ughhh! I can hear you..."

She blinked and whirled her head over to the right. There, halfway buried in the debris was Koemai. He was face down and covered from his lower body up to his back. Moving down from the mound of debris she was on, she struggled and managed to pull enough of the debris off to drag him out and over to the nearest building (That wasn't knocked down). She then stopped against the wall and rolled him over face up.

"Koemai."

His eyes were rolled over, but he managed to straighten them out for a moment and gasp out.

"Can't...feel my...legs..."

Havoc and White zoomed in through the building, heading toward the warring clans. As they approached, more buildings ahead exploded in weapons fire and Elijah found himself lost all of a sudden. 'How do we even start?' The two clans were the most powerful of clans and they seemed intent on destroying one another. Two Ravens wouldn't be able to stop that. Chance are, they will only get themselves killed. But they had to try something.

"Please tell me you've thought of something." Baron called over the comm.

"Still working on it."

A closer explosion caught their attention and the machines halted. Descending into the scene was a brown and yellow AC, equipped with a laser rifle in its right hand, a laser blade on its left, grenade launcher and small missiles on the back and missile extensions on the shoulders. Both Elijah and Baron gasped at who the Raven was as it looked over at them through gleaming red eyes.

"Mobius!"

In that moment, they were face-to-face with the Nine Breaker, the ace Raven of all Ravens and champion of the arena. For a moment it seemed that he would turn and attack them, but the AC turned back and fired into the smoky air. The energy beam disappeared within and a moment later, sparks flew out. The two were in disbelief as to what he had fired at until the source emerged from the smoke. It was a pale AC, equipped with solid rifle gun, left arm missiles, a orbiter and vertical missiles on the back and missile extensions on the shoulder. They looked on as the AC fired down on Mobius and forcing him to zoom away. The AC looked over at them and muttered.

"Your fate is yet to be seen."

Cursed One... The lead AC of the Blood Omen clan. The pale machine then turned and chased down Mobius, only to be confronted by a salvo of missiles. The machine agilely dodged the missiles and they continued on their course, now heading for White Wolf and Havoc.

"Aw, crap! Dodge!"

Both ACs shot off to the side, avoiding the majority of missiles that flew at them. The few remaining ones smashed into the buildings and three of them hit into White Wolf's shoulder, damaging the inactive missile interceptors on it. The flying debris shattered everywhere, flicking off the two ACs. As Havoc moved off, he began to rethink things. They were no match for the likes of either Mobius or Cursed One, much less both of them at the same time. They could wait for the clans to run out of ammo, but by the time they did that, the city would be nothing but rubble. They had to get them out and there was only one way they could do that.

'I'm going to regret this.'

Raising his machine gun, he shot up out from behind the building and fired in the direction of the two ACs. The fire flew on through and hit the back of Cursed One. But the pale machine paid no attention and continued its assault on the Nine Breaker. Elijah blinked. 'He's ignoring me?' Meanwhile, White Wolf had seen what Havoc had done and repeated the action, jumping up and firing a bazooka shot. The heavy ammo flew through the sky, aiming for Cursed One. But Cursed on dashed aside and the shot flew at Mobius instead, hitting the building beside him and sending more debris everywhere. Baron's eyes widened, imagining that he had now earned the wrath of the Nine Breaker. But to his surprise (and partial relief), Mobius went on to hunt down Cursed One, ignoring White Wolf altogether. Elijah noticed this.

'They're ignoring us...just to destroy each other? It doesn't make sense.'

"Come in, Havoc."

Elijah blinked at the voice. "Charles. What the hell is up with these guys?"

From the hanger, Charles replied via his own AC. "What did you expect. They don't have time for you and they really don't care."

A frown grew over Elijah's face. "That's messed up."

"Don't worry. I have an idea to get them out of the city."

"It's about time." Baron calling in through his end of the comm. "What do we do?"

"Attack the AC Dark Ritual."

Elijah's face narrowed. "That's it?"

"Just do it."

'Well, it's better than nothing.' Elijah mused. Flying into the sky, he activated his AC identifier and scanned the battling mechas. It took a bit of time, due to the chaos and weapons fire that was creating interference. But finally, Elijah tracked down the Dark Ritual AC. It was a sleek black AC with crimson stripes across it and reverse-jointed legs. Its arms were dual energy slug guns, its back was armed with two set of vertical missiles and shoulders equipped with vertical missile extensions. Right now, he was currently attacking a seriously damaged Silver Fox, a gray heavyweight AC with a Karasawa rifle, shield, dual vertical missiles and extensions. But all the weapons it possessed was either damaged or destroyed, leaving it with only it EOs to fight back. Dark Ritual bounced across, dodging the energy beams that were fired from the bulky AC. Dark Ritual opened up its verticals and let them fly. The missiles soared high into the air and then descended on Silver Fox like meteors. The AC raised its shield, but it was a futile gesture as the missiles swarmed him and in a stream of smoke and fire, the bulky AC fell to the ground. Elijah watched this with a hint of anger, remembering how the Death Dealers crippled him in the same manner. Gripping tight on the controls, he unleashed a salvo of machine fire on the AC. The bullet ripped along the back of the dark machine, but it stood motionless. Elijah was worried that the plan didn't work and that Dark Ritual would ignore him just like Mobius and Cursed One. But rather, the machine turned around slowly and looked up at Havoc, its red eye gleaming brightly.

"Dark Ritual Summoning..."

Elijah blinked in confusion as White Wolf flew in beside him, raising his bazooka in order to fire. But soon, gleams of red lights flickered within the smoke.

"Charles, what's going on?"

"Run now!"

As soon as he said that, the red gleams burst from the smoke, revealing the entire Blood Omen clan. Both Havoc and White Wolf turned around as the machine went on an all-out pursuit after them. Elijah had to carefully in order not to overheat his generator, but he also had to keep his machine flying as Blood Omen stuck on him tight.

"What did you just make me do?" Elijah shouted back at the comm.

"By attacking him, you've...activated the ritual."

"What the hell are you talking about!"

"It's what they believe." Charles went on to explain. "Attacking Dark Ritual in their mind is like summoning demons, in this case, all of them. It's a signal for a joint attack on the attacker."

"Are you serious!"

"They're chasing you, aren't they?" As in answer, a cannon blast flew by his head and demolished the street before him. "Don't worry." Charles continued. "Now they'll follow you out of the city."

"Then what?"

"Then you deal with them."

"Deal with them? What kind of help is that?"

Charles didn't reply and Elijah felt the urge to hit the comm, but decided against it (He'll hit the speaker later) as he flew toward the edge of the city. White Wolf was suddenly blocked off by an explosion and forced to stop. Turning around, he saw the entire Blood Omen clan right on him.

"Guuaahhh!"

He raised his weapon to fire, but the ACs continued on, flying past him. Baron was surprised by this. 'Why didn't they attack me?' As in answer, Charles spoke in through his comm.

"You didn't activate the ritual so they'll leave you alone."

Baron let out a sigh of relief, but it was cut off when a roar of booster fire alerted him. From the direction of the first clan came the Majestic Force clan. And just like Blood Omen, the ace Ravens soared past White Wolf in pursuit of the rival clan.

Meanwhile, Elijah was getting the bad end of the battle as the Blood Omen continued to pursue him. The good news is that he managed to get them out and with Majestic Force following, the city was safe. The bad news is that his fuel energy had just burned out. The red warning lights lit up and left Havoc in walking mode. Not that that would matter because in the next second, Blood Omen would be upon him and he would be destroyed.

'Is this the end?'

Fzzzzzzhhhhh!

Elijah's eyes widened when he realized that the sounding blast hadn't hit him. Turning Havoc around, he saw that the Blood Omen clan was now firing at a new target, moving fast across the side of the wasteland. Phantom...

"What are you waiting for?" Ellie screamed over the comm. "Move it!"

"I can't." Elijah shot back. "My AC is drained. It'll take another couple of seconds to return to normal."

Ellie snarled as she narrowed avoided another energy beam. "Okay, I'll..."

It was then that the remaining members of Majestic Force caught up and fired upon Blood Omen, blasting away Broken Seal and damaging Unholy. In return, Cursed One managed to lock on to Zero and blast its head off, causing it to fall out of the air and crash into the ground. Havoc was still stuck in walking, trying to avoid the weapon fire that was flying behind him.

'Come on. Hurry up!'

The fuel gauge lit green and without another thought, Elijah pushed the controls forward, narrowly avoiding a cannon blast that erupted beside him. No other shot came at him as the two clans were embroiled in their own battle. Along with Phantom, the two machines moved back toward the city, meeting up with the approaching White Wolf.

"Okay, what do we do now?" Baron asked, eager to enter the battle.

But Ellie cast his hope aside in her answer. "Our mission is complete. Let's just get out of here."

Baron looked back at the ongoing battle. "What about them?"

"As long as they're not in the city, I don't care." Elijah grumbled.

Baron seemed ready to argue when the sound of new weapon fire alerted their attention. Turning back, they saw a dark set of ACs dive out of the sky and fire upon both Blood Omen and Majestic Force. The two clans were too badly damaged and by the time they realized they were under attack, their numbers were reduced. The dark ACs hit the ground and continued their blitzkrieg assault.

"What the...? The Death Dealers?"

The Death Dealers pressed on, taking out Dark Ritual, Shade and Haunted. The only ones left were Cursed One and Mobius, both unable to do any serious fighting. The two ACs faced off against the clan of seven, lead by Reaper.

"Strong or weak, good or evil, all are equal in death."

Ellie, Baron and Elijah watched in horror as the two remaining ACs were literally slaughtered before their eyes by the dark clan. They didn't go down without a fight, but they did go down. After five minutes of fire and attacking, the Death Dealers stood triumphant over the corpses of machinery and weapons on the ground. Right before their eyes, they realized that the two most powerful clans were wiped out by one. As they realized this, Reaper turned its head over to them and raised its energy scythe at them, slashing down. Elijah knew exactly what that meant.

"We're next."