Author's note: Well, I've decided to forget about rewriting this one sentence since it was racking my brain. If you can find it, I'll give you a cookie (not really).

AN2: After this, I'll be at MCTI starting on the 13th, so don't expect anything till after I get back. I might surprise you though, if the workload isn't too bad. Don't count on it though.

AN3: Rough draft reader wanted! I'm cheap and broke, so I won't pay you, but I will credit you. YIM user a plus.

AN4: I've got my own forum up, titled "MidKnight's Office". Check it. Please. It's all lonely and in need of friends.

To Onikami-no-Shinobi: Yep, it sure is. And I do plan to see this though till the end. How long it'll take is a completely different story.

To Hiro Konobu: Glad you like it. Hope you like this one.

To Dra-Gan: um...you wouldn't happen to be my friend Jon would you? He's really into dragons so...anyway, I'm got mixed feeling about writing with this level of quality. On one hand it makes for a good read, and on the other hand it takes quite a while for me to write this much and then become confident enough with it to submit it. I just feel like I'm going too slow, y'know?

AN5: Grr...I can't seem to keep more than two empty lines empty, so I used a separator between Eclair's and David's naratives. All of my tabs were removed too, so I have to indent everything all over again in the editor. I said this in my profile and I'll say it again: this editor suxors.

AN6: ARGH! It removed my indentations AGAIN! THIS EDITOR FAILS! (I import all of my stuff from a master MSWord .doc file)

Diclaimer: I do not own the rights to Armored Core. From Software owns it. I do, however, own any ideas that were not expressed by From Software (such as my characters and various aspects of this story's plot) and my own personal copies of the Armored Core video game series.

Armored Core: Vendetta

Chapter 3, Empty Shell

Éclair could only feel whole on the battlefield.

Even now, breathing deeply from within the pressurized cockpit of her AC, surrounded by the smoking remains of what used to be Chrome's Mark 14s that composed their gate defenses, she felt a thrill that escaped explanation. It was all she lived for. It was the only thing she could live for. Everything else was lost.

Éclair never knew her parents. Instead, she was raised by the charismatic and idealistic leader of Struggle, an anti-Chrome terrorist group secretly backed by Murikumo Millennium, whose main goal was to ruin Chrome's public image and to financially and morally weaken Chrome. Their leader was like a father to her. They both delighted in each other's company, and shared their lives with each other as a real father and daughter would. He never did approve of her joining him and his comrades in battle, but he never once could stop her. She wanted to be by his side. Always.

Then Chrome found out the location of their hideout. They sent a Raven down into the winding tunnels of the abandoned mine that Struggle used as their home base and set him loose with orders to exterminate everyone. Éclair somehow survived the carnage that ensued, but not without loosing everything she held dear.

For a long time Éclair was on her own, doing all she could to survive. She made money as a soldier-for-hire, an assassin, and other means, memories of some forcefully buried into the darkest corners of her mind, where she kept them there undisturbed in hopes of forgetting that they ever happened. Every time she did something that she regretted in order to survive, she blamed it on that Raven. Even though, as a mercenary, she knew that he was only doing his job, she still could not forgive him for destroying what little life she had with Struggle.

As the years passed by, her hatred towards him gradually burned brighter, until she suddenly decided to become a Raven herself. As a Raven, she could find higher-paying jobs to afford more powerful and advanced equipment, and she might even cross paths with him. With her mind made up, she became a Raven almost immediately, taking the name of one of her adopted father's favorite desserts as her new alias. She picked Éclair both because of the relation to her foster father and because of its relation to lightning, and, in a sense, speed, in another, archaic language. After all, it was her father who said both "Speed is a powerful force in battle. If you can think, move, fight and run faster than your enemy, then half the battle is already yours" and "Don't worry. You'll be alright as long as you're not hit".

She quickly gained an amazing reputation among both the Ravens and the corporations as a highly experienced and skilled combatant, both with and without an AC. But money and reputation meant nothing to her. All she wanted was a chance to kill him.

Then, fate delivered.

She was just about to complete her contract to destroy a Chrome supply base when he showed up on her scanners. Éclair immediately dropped what she was doing and attacked him with all of her might. The battle was long and favored neither of them, but Éclair managed to deal the final blow when her adversary made a critical mistake.

She had finally avenged the death of her family and friends, and for a short while, Éclair felt as though a large weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. But soon after, Éclair began to feel a profound emptiness growing deep inside her. She no longer could find the reason to live anymore, for she had no identity, no family, and now nothing to drive her forward. Lost and alone, she tried to take her own life numerous times, but each time she was unable to bring herself to do it. She couldn't help but think of how utterly shameful she'd fell if she went though with it, and then found herself face to face with her foster father on the other side With nothing else left for her to do, she continued to fight as a Raven, waiting for a good place to die.

But, even then, she simply couldn't allow herself to die without a fight. The thrill of battle was just too much, and she could not just allow someone to kill her, even if she tried. It seemed, to Éclair at least, that only someone stronger than her in every way could truly release her from her own meaningless existence.

"Heads up! We're opening the gate!" A voice on the radio shouted.

Suddenly, the massive wall blocking the exit of the highway tunnel opened up, revealing a vast city filled with tall buildings and smoothly paved streets. Moonlight shined into the tunnel as the walls two halves continued to separate, stopping with a resounded thud once the tunnels entrance was fully opened.

"We're in." The squad leader said over the radio with a hint of excitement. "All that's left now is to secure the surrounding area. Raven!"

Éclair immediately stood her AC to attention. Even though she wasn't a soldier, she always showed respect for whoever commanded her in battle. Her father taught her to show respect for your commander, and she rarely, if ever, went against anything that he had taught her.

"Go to your next objective as per your contract. I'm sorry, but I can't give you any support. We took too many casualties before you arrived. Can you handle it on your own?"

Éclair chucked a bit, and then responded over the radio with her natural, lightly accented voice. "Of course. I will only be gone momentarily." She then walked her AC towards a nearby Chrome construction site, one of her mission objectives.

It didn't take long for Éclair to get close enough to the construction site to see it through her AC's main optical sensor. But she had no time to size up her target, as alarms went off from within her cockpit.

"Caution: fire control system error" The feminine voice of her AC's main computer spoke as related semitransparent displays popped up on her visor. "Caution: radar error. ECM confirmed. Unable to compensate."

An ambush? "Command: engage combat mode," Éclair shouted quickly.

"Combat mode engaged." The main computer automatically armed her small, back mounted rocket launchers, and brought the two plasma cutters that made up the AC's hands on standby while Éclair was free to turn her AC around, trying to find either the source of the jamming, or one of the MTs that were trying to ambush her. If they were MTs, that is.

Nothing.

Éclair suddenly felt a chill up her back. If there was anything she didn't like, it was being snuck up on. She preferred to be the one doing the ambushing. "Command: engage night vision."

Although the amount of ambient light was enough to go without it, Éclair did not want to take chances. MTs were nothing special. They were easy and cheap to manufacture, simple to maintain and pilot, and were specially designed for a specific purpose. Nevertheless, MTs were still inferior to an AC. But, in the hands of a skilled pilot and a knowledgeable commander, it wouldn't be impossible for a team of them to take out an AC. In addition, MTs, with their smaller size, were more suited to maneuvering in a dense urban environment, whereas her AC was an 18-meter giant, which worked better in a more wide-open environment.

Of course, if it was an AC that was lurking about, then Éclair was in for real trouble.

Gradually, Éclair's view changed from a world of darks and grays into a pallet of green. Lines, surfaces, and structures were easier to make out, allowing her to get a better feel for her surroundings. She noticed that she was in the center of a four-way intersection, and slowly began to feel as though she was being watched.

Suddenly, a faint explosion was picked up by her audio sensors, which replayed the sound back to the speaker in the back of her cockpit. Before she could react, a sudden force hit the back of her AC. Éclair was pushed forward by the muscle tracer's feedback system, and Éclair responded by putting her left foot forward to regain her balance. Her AC followed suit and recovered its own balance in the same manner that she did.

"How dare you!" Éclair shouted as she spun around and fired a rocket from each of the two launchers. The two rockets flew straight and true down the street until they were gone from view. A faint explosion was heard later, and a small display came up, blinked twice, and then went away. "NFI" No fuel impact. The rockets had run out of propellant and had fallen like boulders, detonating when they hit the ground. She had missed.

Another faint explosion and Éclair was once again shot from behind. She turned around and fired again, but again she hit nothing.

Éclair was beginning to worry. She had to figure out where the shots were coming from. Although the shots didn't seem to cause much damage, they nevertheless seemed to be highly accurate. Running for cover without radar to help her pick a safe location to run towards wasn't a good idea, because if she tried it now, she would risk running straight into a trap. She needed to gauge the trajectories of the snipers, and quickly.

David held his breath as he tried to steady his aim. He never would've thought that Murikumo would send in a Raven to deal with them. But, all things considered, he thought that his rag-tag team was doing fairly well picking away at the AC. The ECM generators that were given to them were working wonderfully, their own units were unaffected by their own jamming, all of the power in the city was off to cut down visibility, their MTs were colored to be difficult to spot with night vision, and that Raven seemed reluctant to charge.

Does he think we're trying to lure him into an ambush? David laughed out loud from within the cockpit of his sniper-type Mark 14. That Raven gives us way too much credit!

David and his crew had decided earlier on a firing order, where one person would fire while the others were either moving to a new position, changing magazines, or aiming. David had just fired off his first shot, but just as he was about to move from the roof of an office building to his next firing position, the pilot must have decided to throw caution to the wind or something as AC broke out into a run.

"Shit!" one of his friends shouted over the radio rapidly. "I'm still heading for cover! He's gonna see me!"

"I got it," David said calmly as he brought his MT's sniper rifle up. Since the Raven was running directly away from him. He had to make the shot count. Taking angle, speed, and distance into account, David aimed at the AC and started to climb though magnification levels.

"Hurry and fire, David!"

David steadied his aim, held his breath, and fired.

The round struck the back of the AC's knee precisely. The AC stumbled, momentarily off balance, turned, and then fired in David's general direction. However, the two rockets were fired parallel to the ground, and David, being has high as he was, could not have cared less about the Raven's blind counterattacks. Also, the building in front of him took the hit, so he didn't have to worry about having the building he was on collapsing from beneath him.

The thought of buildings collapsing triggered old memories, and David worried if he was playing a hand in a similar catastrophe, fighting in a place like this. Then he remembered about the evacuation, which eased his mind somewhat.

Shaking himself back to reality, David checked up on his target.

The AC had stopped, and was now looking around.

David brought his rifle back up for a second shot, but just as he was about to fire, he was overcome with fear.

The AC was looking straight at him.

"Oh shit!" David shouted as two rockets came screaming towards him. He immediately jumped backwards, off the buildings roof, and slowed his decent with his boosters. A loud explosion coming from where he just was told him that, had he panicked any longer, he would have been killed.

After David touched down, he checked his radar to see where the AC was.

No sooner then when he looked at the display, the thunderous sounds of the AC's boosters told him exactly what he needed to know: he couldn't outrun it.

David knew that he would only have one chance to hit the AC's left knee again. If it didn't disable it, then he was a goner. But first, he had to anticipate which way the Raven would come from, then move away so that the Raven would not see him once the his AC reached where he was now.

David panted nervously as he loaded a fresh, full clip while his eyes darted from his HUD to his radar display, ready to retreat as soon as the AC moved to go around the building.

What's it gonna be; the left, or from the right? Wait. Didn't the sound of his boosters change? Now he's not even using them. The hell?

David checked his radar display again. The AC wasn't moving. It was just standing there. Is it just waiting for me? But then he noticed that the symbol was blue.

From above!

David looked up to see the AC standing on the roof of the building that he was just on, staring down towards his MT. Two beams of energy the length of its arms appeared from where it's hands should have been, and it began to drop down towards David.

David hit his boosters, trying desperately to move away from the reach of the AC's plasma cutters as it landed in front of him. Nevertheless, one of the beams succeeded in cutting completely through his MT's right arm with as much difficulty as it would take to rip apart wet cardboard.

Rifle and metal forearm now lying on the ground in front of him, David found himself short on options. All he had was a plasma cutter that was mounted to his left forearm, but there was no way that he could match this Raven in a blade fight. He'd only have one shot. But this blade isn't nearly as powerful enough to breach the cockpit. I'll just have to try for the sensors!

As the AC rose back onto its feet, David lunged forward with his left arm extended, and just as the Raven deftly sliced that arm off as well, David activated his plasma cutter. With a sharp, indescribable roar, the cutter came alive and sent a sword-like beam of energy straight at the AC's head section, piercing the center camera and melting the components around it, effectively blinding the AC.

David's feelings of triumph were short-lived, however. The AC was still operational, albeit disoriented, and David was now completely defenseless. With a now armless MT, David opened up the boosters to as high as they could possibly go, with no regard to the stress to his generator or to the booster's integrity. With the added thrust, David attempted to ram into the AC, which was easily twice his MT's size.

The tremendous sound of the impact resounded throughout the city of Isaac. The AC staggered, almost lost its footing, but regained it. David's MT, which was on the verge of overheating, fell to the ground in front of it. David tried desperately to bring his damaged MT to it's feet, but without arms he found it impossible. Slowly, the AC brought up its blade, ready to bring it down on the defenseless MT. David heard the roar of it activating, and had to call up a rear camera to see it, as his MT was laying face-first. He stared at the brilliant light of the AC's blade and, knowing that there was nothing he could do, closed his eyes in anticipation of the murderous heat he was soon going to experience.

David thought of his father.

Well, there wasn't much to think about really. His father spent nearly every waking hour of every day at work. Whenever anyone asked what he did that day, he always went on to describe various conversations and interactions he had with other employees. If he had a meeting, all he said about it was "and then I went to a meeting" and just went on, frequently ending with "oh yeah, I also made some great coffee". It didn't take long for people to stop asking. That is, except for David and his mother. But what was different between them was how they reacted. David would always shower his father with questions, such as "do you need a key card, or do they use those laser eye things?", "what's the boss like?", "what was the biggest MT you ever saw?", "Did you make anything new?" and the like. Some questions he answered, others he didn't, saying only "Shhh…it's a secret, kiddo". His mother, on the other hand, asked nothing. Whenever he came home from work, she had his food and bed ready for him. She didn't seem to mind that he left frequently, and stayed for no more than a few days at a time.

If there was one thing that David did remember about his father, it was that he loved both MTs and ACs, and that when talking about them sometimes said pasionetly "but something still needs to be done on the other side of the spectrum". David still didn't know what he meant by that.

Maybe I'll ask him once I get to the other side.

Suddenly, an explosion blared through the MT's speakers, causing David to winch from the sheer volume of it. Daring a look at certain death, he saw the once menacing AC wobbling awkwardly; its left leg severed at the knee. After a while, the AC toppled down onto the pavement with a resounding thud that was heard throughout the entire sector.

"You owe me a keg, Mr. Blue Balls," teased a feminine voice from the radio.

"Naomi? Is that you?" David hollered back over the comm.

"Take a wild guess!" Naomi replied sarcastically. "Hurry and finish him off before he can cause anymore trouble!"

Knowing that the AC could not get up now that one of its legs were destroyed and that it had no real "hands" to brace itself with, David commanded his disabled MT to shut down. Once the Muscle Tracer released him, David was able to take out a set of color-coded keys from his right hip pocket and, after using a gray key to retrieve a pistol from one of the storage compartments, David exited the MT.

Ready or not, here I come!