Debriefing 8: Casefile1: Unknown
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Chapter 8: Superiority Index
Arebra sat shaking her head wondering about if there were any safeties in the AIs. "Dr. Sub? Aren't they're any safeties programmed into these AIs?"
Dr. SubAtomic shook his heads. "I'm afraid that there are not. It was the Academy and Crest's intention to program a fail safe into the program, but the AIs were so complex we designed the ACs, and AIs first. We were scheduled to install those fail safes tomorrow and next week move them to an undisclosed location, but not anymore." His expression was one of gloom as he paused for a breath.
Azriel shook his head, "but Doc I thought it was suppose to be kept a secret." Everyone turned to Azriel now wondering what does he know. He sighed heavily. "Well the cats out the bag, but I'm not the only student who knows the Academy's little secret." He nodded. "Nixie, and that guy Orsin are in on it as well."
Dr. SubAtomic then took over. "It was never the intention of the Academy to involve the students in the side projects, but Azriel, Nixie, and Orsin had shown great promise as not only mechanics, but an understanding of ACs and its parts to such a degree it was amazing. So they were put to work every few day for a couple of days, and so they had a great hand in the development of these AIs, but I need to address the AIs themselves. They work like thus. Each AI was programmed with data recorded during tests, arena boughts, and etc. Then after the data was collected we picked out fragments and compressed the data with other bits of data. Through this compressing we were able to only feed the AIs with nothing but the best. In short we took the best of each person's style and implanted it into the AIs. The end results were AIs that were able to adapt to not only changing battle conditions, but to weaponry and range as well. They could be transplanted into any AC and still function at an extremely high performance level. In short they are simply godly, in lack of a better term."
Instructor Albion who though he was an employee at the Academy didn't know of all that had been going on, and this was his first time learning of the Academy's little side project. "Now this is why I want you all to go and get some rest, for tomorrow we begin our search for those Ravens. We'll go over the mission specs and start our preoperational training, and as for you two Ravens. Your welcome to stay and we'll have Crest write up some new contracts for ya, or leave. It is your choice."
Za'Afiel had sat and heard everything, and felt that what was going on was none of his business. "This is none of my concern, and I will be leaving. I wish I could say this wasn't a waist of my time but, it was." He turned to look towards Azriel. "And you dear cousin. As my father taught us, each member of our family is held responsible for any loose end that he or she leave as a result of their work. Those AIs were in part your creation and as such it is your duty and yours alone to correct." He rose from his seat and stretched. "Christian are you coming?" Christian nodded.
"I agree with Za'Afiel. This is out of our control, and we will, as our contract stated, keep this info we have just heard confidential." The two left after Christians brief words leaving with them a dilemma.
Dr. SubAtomic scratched his head for a second. "Well…I guess we're going to need some new members for this operation…I think I know just the pair." He sighed heavily again. "I think we need more resources then what we have."
The Next Day
The next day came and all those who were in the conference room from the night before were accounted for, all but the two Ravens. Everyone had gotten little sleep, and it showed in their faces. The good doctors himself seemed especially out of it.
Azriel, Arebra, Arious, InuAcosta and Sarah sat around waiting for something. Then the door opened and Emiko stepped through. It was to no one's surprise that she would take part since she was an official member of the Human Plus program, but who stepped in after her was her brother Hiroshi.
Hiroshi wasn't anything special to look at nor was he anything like his sister. She was aggressive and he was passive. He was the strong silent type, and his opponents always thought him to be annoying because he specialized in elongating a battle even though his AC was well equipped for multiply combat scenarios, currently he and his sister were number one in team combat, as a team they can beat even the Azriel, and his partner Inu.
Hiroshi waved, "hi." Hiroshi then took the nearest seat. His sister simple took a seat next to her brother.
Dr. SubAtomic began. "First I'd like to welcome our team combat specialist, without them we would surely fail. They have been debriefed and we shall discuss the superiority of the AIs. The first thing you must know is that the AIs names are that of the ACs they are embedded in. We will have the creators of the ACs themselves help explain the first is Rhapsody and then we will bring in Nixie and Orsin after him."
Azriel got up and walked to were Dr. SubAtomic was standing. "The first AI is my creation. It's a light weight AC. That is the first of it. Its name is the Rhapsody, and it uses an orbit cannon, and light weight back mounted linear cannon. It equipped with the E2 solid EO core. It right arm is equipped with a high power AST handgun and its left arm is equipped with a grenade launcher. It has missile extensions, and it uses modified ECMs." He stopped for a second and looked around to see if they were following. " These AC have modified parts. The ECMs are high level with long life. Its lock mechanism has an extremely quick lock and large sight lock, and its long range. The boosters are modified to have lower heat but high boost power. Rhapsody is highly mobile and not in the least weak." Azriel sat down.
Dr. SubAtomic moved to the door and escorted Nixie in and she began her explanation. "The AI AC that I created is named Odin. It is a mid-weight thermal type AC. Its entire armor was refitted to be denser and the boosters were modified to support the weight. It has a Railgun on its back and Cluster missile pod. It uses the E2 solid EO core and it has napalm missiles as its inside part. The right arm is equipped with a increased range flamethrower and it has a modified reduced power grenade rifle on the left. The grenade launcher may be reduced power but it fires napalm shells." Nixie took a breathe and walked out the door.
The next person to walk in through the door was Orsin. He was an average height person with blonde hair and a camouflage bandana with a toothpick in his mouth. He took his position next were his predecessors had stood and began. "My creation is the AI AC Excalibur. It is a light scale mid-weight AC. It uses blade arms, and it has on its back a light weight linear cannon and homing missiles." A smile grew across his face. "Now Excalibur is no second rate AC, oh no. It has the most moded parts. Its arms are reduced weight for increase striking capability; also the AC has built in turning boosters that enable to turn quickly at 45 degree increments. Its arms are also modded to work in junction with its FCS, and as such can lock-on it blade attacks. It has inside parts by the way. It uses special high power explosives with higher power and greater range, plus the bombs are dispersible and as such can be turn to mines. The real genius to the design is in its head. The core is OB but it has been modded so that the OB charge time is greatly reduced, which enables quick overboosts. It also has an ECM generator in its head and so it has an ECM range of 500 meters around it. Quick, deadly, A true masterpiece." He seemed to drift off into his own little world, but he was told to leave as so the real preparations could begin.
Dr. SubAtomic took the floor with Instructor Albion beside him. "Now that you see the horror of the three AI ACs, and why your going to need some serious work? This is how we will prepare you all. As we speak three AI ACs are being brought up from the Restricted Area. These are unlike the usual AI ACs at the Academy. These are the prototype AIs of the three that were stolen. They are nowhere near as strong but we will have all of you against the three. Please move to your ACs."
Instructor Albion ushered all the students out but Azriel. Who stood behind to talk with Dr. SubAtomic. Azriel seemed to calm over all this. He was not worried, or at least he didn't look it.
"Doc? Why don't we use IT?" Azriel asked a little too coolly.
Dr. SubAtomic shook his head. "Sorry 'IT' is out of the question. Its incomplete and the support AI has yet to stabilize."
Azriel shook his head. "But the AC itself is more than complete enough to destroy those AIs and there ACs."
Again Dr. SubAtomic shook his head. "Out of the question."
Azriel seemed frustrated at this point. So much so that he was on the boarder of hysteria. "You'd rather condemn us to death then allow us the tools we need to succeed? You are an idiot! There is no chance in hell for us to even come close to those AIs and you know that!"
Still Dr. SubAtomic stood firm behind his belief. "That won't be necessary. Azriel I have confidence in yours and your comrades abilities. I have seen you all at your best, and worse. Your belief that you and the rest of us can't succeed then you are in fact right." Dr. SubAtomic placed a hand on Azriel's shoulder. "Remember that if you think you can't then you've defeated yourself before the battle even began. You must have hope and faith in your skills, because they're are people counting on you, and it is important not to lose your way and guide your comrades to victory. Remember I have faith in you."
Azriel look at Dr. SubAtomic's hand for second and pushed it away. Shaking his head. "I don't think we have a chance with out 'IT' but I will have faith in my team and my abilities, oh, and Doc? Don't ever touch me again." Azriel proceeded out of the room and to the group that was waiting for him near the ACs.
Azriel quickly tried to change his facial expression before he anyone could notice his look of doom left from the thought of the AIs. "Ok, everyone we will be enter a training match with the three AIs: Proto-Alpha, Proto-Beta, and Proto-Gamma. These are the names of the three AIs. You all will be fighting in blocks of three for this exercise. I will not be participating in this exercise, because I will be gathering data." Azriel pointed to the large containers that were just arriving. "Those are the AIs, and this is how the blocks are set. Arious, Arebra, Hiroshi are the first group. Sarah, Inu, and Emiko are the second. Is there any problems?"
Inu raised his hand. "Do you want me dead?"
Azriel stroked his chin for a second. "No, but I want you, Sarah, and Emiko to get along."
Inu gulped hard. "But they'll hurt Inu."
Azriel sighed, "too bad. Its better that you three learn to work together, or else were dead in the water, so to speak." Azriel pointed them off to their ACs. "Please hurry up and get yourselves and your ACs ready. I need to check on the AI ACs."
A few hours later
Every thing was set for Inu, Sarah and Emiko's performance. Azriel had the three AIs prepped for combat. He modified their program as to perform at a safe level. They were set for practice mode and not combat. This gave Inu and his group more of a chance to succeed.
The AIs were each white with a second color to define them. Proto-Alpha had red, Proto-Beta was blue and Proto-Gamma was green. Each had a EO core. Both Proto-Alpha and Proto-Beta used the mid-weight solid core while Proto-Gamma was equipped with the E2 light weight core.
Proto-Alpha was equipped with the EYE3 head low energy drain arms with energy extensions. It used a solid EO core and its legs were supported on leges. It had no back weapons. On its left arm was a linear rifle, and on its left was a KARASAWA rifle. It was also equipped with missiles decoys.
Proto-Beta had equipped the EYE3 head, with LEMAR2 arms COUGAR2 legs. Like Proto-Alpha it had nothing on its back. In its left arm was a heavy alloy shotgun and in its left hand was a high power machine, and it was equipped with inside floating mines.
Proto-Gama was equipped had as the previous two and was equipped with the EYE3 head. It had the E2 core, LORIS arms and low drain legs. It had a single veridical missile pack. In its right hand was a PIXIE3 machine gun, and in its left was a sniper rifle.
They didn't look like anything special, and in fact they seemed ill-equipped, and so they all seemed over confident. The Proto ACs didn't really look tough and it was understandable since they were only prototypes.
Azriel was sitting in the control room with his three monitors. One for the actual combat, another for status of the AIs and the last for his teams status. He also had a keyboard and he wasn't alone. Nixie and Orsin were sitting near also monitoring status of the test soon to be in progress.
Down below in the Arena The Proto-ACs were starting up and Inu's team was up and running. Inu's Team began to rise on the opposite of the Proto-ACs. It was Sarah and Gato, Inu and Hailstrum, and Emiko and her AC Dominatrix.
Dominatrix was a light mid-weight weight AC. It had the WASP head, and a light-weight OB core with hanger feature. It also had the LIROS arms and it was supported on the DINGO2 legs, and it used the GULL boosters. On its left was the MOONLIGHT blade and on its right was a high power low weight shotgun. On its back was the HYDRA multi-missile pack and she had GAR extensions, and SQUID ECMs. The color was a black with hot pink.
Azriel came over the loudspeakers, "hey everyone. This is only a test but try your best. These ACs are set on safety mode so they should still be a challenge, and girls don't kill Inu, ok?"
The battle begun as the Proto-ACs started to advance in a triangular formation with Proto-Alpha as the lead point. None of the ACs opened fire as they crossed towards Inu's group.
The three people associated with Inu's group watched as they came closer. They decided to split up and take them on in there own unique way. Emiko and her AC went straight for the Proto-ACs, as Sarah circled to the left. Inu did what he knew best. He took aim with his micro-missiles, and turned on the extensions. He boosted into the air and let loose his thirteen shot missile swarm.
They came towards the Proto-ACs, but Proto-Alpha began releasing MEDUSA2 decoys, a total of 4, and the fact that their cores had built-in interceptors meant that literally almost all the missiles were either shot down or decoyed from their target.
Inu was a little huffy about how he would have to get closer to have a better chance at success. This was in truth Inu first chance to pilot the Hailstrum and he had to admit that it was pretty good. He like how it was more mobile, and the higher accuracy arm, though he had yet to fire anything but missles.
Emiko as she was almost in range to attack switched to an overboosted heading directly for Proto-Alpha which looked to have the most power with its Linear rifle and KARASAWA rifle. She was in a matter of seconds in range to slash and so she dropped a quick ECM as slashed at Proto-Alpha but something happened. As she slashed Proto-Alpha adjusted itself and Proto-Beta let booster closer and let loose a floating mine that collided with Emiko's AC forcing a delay in the slash that freed Proto-Alpha to side step. Then Proto-Gamma took to the center and started to open fire on Emiko as she tried to recover composure from the mine.
Emiko boosted up and back to get away, and she realized it wasn't going to be as easy as she originally thought. The Proto-ACs covered one another from attack and in doing so open up the opponent for an attack, and she knew that her close range blade was going to hurt her if she couldn't isolate any Proto-ACs. Then something happened.
Azriel was monitor the AIs status got a notice that the AIs were switching form safety to live combat. He quickly tried to adjust the programming but a little flaming head with an eye patch popped. It just said the same thing over and over, "burn, baby, burn." Azriel turned around to see the reaction on their faces. They were all getting the same thing. "somebody tells me what's goin' on!"
Nixie was shaking here head, "I have no idea! The system was suddenly infected by a virus. I think it's a gift from Fefnir."
Orsin was typing furiously as he tried to correct the corruption of the system. "The virus is spreading! They're locked in there!"
Azriel was at this point heated. "We need them to endure for as long as they can as we try and get them out." He tried the loud speaker, "hey! You better step up your game the damned things switched there modes. There gunna kill you! Just hold one we're trying to correct the problem as we speak."
N/C: Waltz of Obedience