Chapter 1: Rising of the Curtains

The boy stumbled out of his cockpit, dazed and a bit pale. He hung over the railing which was situated right in front of his ACs cockpit. His short brown hair fell around his face as he covered his mouth. The bright red long sleeved jacket that he wore, bore the Neo Ark emblem on its back, a Raven spreading its wings with oval rings encircling behind it. Luckily for him, regurgitation wasn't beyond his control. His dark blue eyes looked plainly on the ground, the energy was drained from his whole being. His legs wobbled, ready to give way to the gravitation that pulled on them, along with the pitch black slacks he wore. The young boy pulled his head up suddenly and started yelling, "You didn't have to freakin swing the AC around like that!"

"Jayden, you'll never survive the next match if you keep piloting your AC like that," A soft voice called out to him. The boy who was called Jayden turned towards the voice. The figure that approached Jayden was bathed in an angelic light. Dark brown hair flowed along the curvacious figure. A slender figure in a pilot suit with its fist balled up and placed in the hips was propped beside Jayden. Jayden looked up at the slightly tanned features of the female with her serene violet eyes.

"That was...a little extreme...don't you think?" He looked blandly at the female, the color drained from his face. The girl smiled, a child like light played across her face.

"Maybe..." The girl had a slight mischeivious tone in her voice and smiled with satisfaction.

"Jen! I wanted practice! Not a slaughter!" Jayden jolted upright and yelled, still trying to suppress the lunch he had ate a couple minutes ago.

"Well, it depends on how you look at it doesn't it?" Jen winked at him, still maintaining her playful attitude. "Hey, come on. I'll make it up to you. How about a drink?" She straightened him up, her hands running along his chest and his shoulders. Jayden found himself relaxing, the awful feeling he had in his stomach was gone at her touch.

"Alright..." They proceeded out of the garage, Jen's arms were now loosely wrapped around Jaydens neck. He was a rarity among Ravens. His name was Jayden Cypher, his name was more well known than that of the current Ninebreaker. It wasn't because he was the best of the best. In fact he had no skills in piloting ACs. In the many months he had spent in Neo Ark, he had only won four matches and probably lost five times as much. His mission success rate wasn't that high either, if he took any missions at all. His friend, Jen, had been with him since he joined Neo Ark. When they first met, Jen had to slap him to his senses because he was spacing out a bit. She was a nice girl and most of the times Jayden found himself staring at her figure. But her kindness was also in conflict with the fun she had torturing Jayden when they had practice in the test arena. Other than that, they were close, almost a couple. They had taken all their missions together and made a vow to eachother that it would stay that way. Although, Jayden never realized, he was the dense type who never gave much thought or realized he had a special gift with women. What's more, he was deeply immersed in AC mechanics, knowledgable in physics and all. Probably why his repair costs were never that high. He was a good two inches higher than Jen. They went down into the hallway where a vending machine was located. Thumping sounds could be heard as the can of pop made its way down to the open slot. Jayden reached in with his hands, feeling the cool metal can around his fingers. He slipped his fingers around the top of the pop can and popped it open, a hissing sound could be heard as the pop inside fizzed up. The Raven took a big gulp from the can before talking to his female companion. "So, what are we up to this time?"

Jen still wore her white pilot suit, sitting cross legged on the couch that lay next to the vending machine. Her brown hair tumbled down in front of her shoulders, almost painting a halo around her face. "Well, I've just accepted an important assignment from the administrator herself."

"From the administrator? We haven't had something like that in a long time." Jayden raised his eyebrow, a mixture of curiosity and surprise was in his words.

"Yeah, I know! Anyways, we're supposed to infiltrate a Zeal warehouse. Supposedly, theres supposed to be a secret weapon that Zeal is storing in it."

"Right, sounds easy enough, whats the success rate of the missions and where the heck is it?" He continued to put the pop can up to his mouth, making large gulping sounds.

"Its located in the Terrace Desert. Its a small base that was recently developed by Zeal, but its grown pretty fast. Security there is really tight, an estimation of fourty ACs are stationed there." Hearing these words Jayden could not help but choke on his drink. He quickly turned his face to the side and spat out all the fizzing substance. Jen seemed startled and took a step backwards.

"Fourty ACs! What the hell! Are you crazy! You'll get us both killed!" He almost screamed. Jen only giggled in response to his actions, a little amused by the way he acted.

"Oh come on! It can't be that bad. I mean, only a couple of ACs, and we can also see the new project that Zeal has been working on, maybe we could even use it! YOU could use it to cut all your losses!", It was apparant that the female was excited about the mission, like a little child on christmas eve. There was glee in her voice and a slight glint of excitement in her eyes.

"Hell no! Besides, I have an arena match coming up. I can't just fool around with random missions." Jayden scoffed as he threw the empty pop can into the cylindrical garbage container that stood beside the couch. Jen had no choice but to plead, she walked closer to Jayden with her head looking up at him.

"Please," She was giving him the puppy dog eyes, "Do it for me, the arena match isn't until next week! You'll have plenty of time. Pretty please!"

Hell no!I won't do it! Jayden hesitated for a moment. His mind was set, but the response he found himself saying was shocking even to himself, "I'll do it!"

"Yes! Your the best Jayden! Thank you so much!" She slung her arms around his neck tightly. Heat began to rise up in the male's body as he blushed a bit.

No! Crap! What the hell did I say that for! Why! Why! Why! The Raven found himself angry at himself at having a disability to saying "no" to women. He also felt like hitting his head against the wall so that he would have an excuse not to go.

A man layed down against the chair, his arms folded up behind his head. The wind which rocked the ship blew past his pure white hair. His skin was quite pale, and he wore pitch black sunglasses beneath the blazing sun. His black dress shirt ruffled through the wind as well as his black jeans. Light footsteps could be heard approaching him. The light thumping stopped when it was loudest and next to him, next came an abrupt voice that stirred the calmness of the environment. "Scion! Shouldn't you be preparing for the docking!" Scion looked up, lifting his shades so that they rested on his forehead. Upon lifting the glasses, his eyes were revealed to be a erie emerald green that glowed strangely. Beside him was a small feminine figure. A form with golden hair flowing down to her shoulders and shining in the sunlight. The right side of her hair was hooked behind her ear. The smooth skin that ran along her figure was slightly tanned, contrasting with her light blue eyes. She was wearing a blue and white striped dress shirt with rolled up sleeves which was unbuttoned and a white tank top on the inside. They fit well with the tight blue jeans that she wore. Scion smirked a bit before replying to the newcomer.

"Hey Beatrice! What's up?" He said in a rather eased manner.

"What's up! Your supposed to be getting ready for docking!" She placed both hands on her hips noting a dissatisfied mood.

"Hm? Well, we still have a couple hours before we arrive at the destination. So..." He placed his shades over his eyes once again and rested his head on the chair. "...I'm just going to relax here a bit."

Beatrice let off a sigh of irritation, "Honestly! Your supposed to be the captain! Not the slacker! You act more like a child than I do!" It wasn't apparent if Scion was angry at the remark. He always responded gently, Beatrice never knew why he was made captain. She had never even seen him pilot his machine before. There was also the rumor that he had been promoted to captain only in a month. He was a strange man, said to have been found by Zeal instead of volunteering himself. His past was a mystery, in fact, everytime she asked him anything about his personal past, he would always answer with a "I don't know," or "I don't remember" phrase.

"Learn to relax a bit will ya? Its the middle of the ocean and what are ya gonna-!" A sudden lurching of the large carrier cut Scion off from his next word. Beatrice tried to steady her footing while Scion lay in a half falling position on his chair.

"What the hell was that!" Beatrice screamed. Her captain slowly got up and dusted his black attire off. Adjusting his shades a bit, he turned to his startled companion.

"Feels like..." Another great lurching of the entire ship caused both figures to stumbled, more from Scion whose shades fell off right beside Beatrices feat. Within all the chaos, Beatrice had been stepping everywhere trying to steady herself. She had not noticed the loud crack that emanated from beneath her feat. "Awwwww, crap...that's the seventh one this month!" A man with rough features who wore a white suit and a white cap addressed Scion as he mourned over the remains of his shattered glasses.

"Sir, its a Sphere ship! They opened fire on us without warning! Should we retaliate?" The man saluted.

"To hell no! First they ruin my vacation and then they break my shades! That's sacrilige, I'll deal with them personally!"