It's been a week since Ace beat Mistletoe. Because he was able to beat an AC unit on his first mission, Ace's name got well-knowned. But autographs and shrieking fangirls aside, being popular has a huge disadvantage. What's the disadvantage? A larger bounty.
Bounties have been placed on pilots of Hasta Caeli by Terra Sphere. The same works vice versa. This is to motivate their pilots to destroy the opposition. If a pilot seems to be adept at piloting, the bounty on his head will increase.
This of course, motivates many people to try and kill Ace. But for the past week, Ace was shoved with recon and defense missions. Some ACs showed up, but where taken out, without fail.
"Maaaaaan! I'm bored!" Ace moans, lying down on the couch.
Madeline, sitting on a chair while reading a book entitled Hairy Potty and The Dead Hollow, just keeps on ignoring him.
"Uh... Hey, are you still mad at me?" Ace asks, finally taking notice of Madeline's odd behaviour for the past few days.
"Why do you always want to put your life on the line?" she asks, closing the book, making a loud sound.
"Huh?" he responds, confused.
"What is there to prove by beating any and every pilot you come across?" Madeline starting to sound angry.
"Heh. That I'm the best goddamn pilot in the world!" he enthusiastically shouted.
"Just for the sake of pride? You throw yourself into life and death situations, just so people would look up to you!" she yells.
"It's not just that! Don't you remember...? Why we had to be here in the first place?" he asks.
Madeline then recalls the events that made them be part of Terra Sphere.
Ace and Madeline grew up in the same town, which is located on the outskirts of Circ-City. They never cross paths despite living near one another. But one day, an MT from Hasta Caeli attacked the town. The objective was unknown. It was a small town, and there was nothing that could pose a threat to them. Either way, every building was razed to the ground. There were only two survivors of said attack. Ace and Madeline. The attack caused both of them to think that the Hasta Caeli are just a bunch of cold blooded killers.
They were found by some members of Terra Sphere. Said members gave them a choice. Join the Terra Sphere military or live underground which is technically considered as hell to many. The second option is due to the law Terra Sphere placed. If anyone who doesn't work for Terra Sphere or is poverty stricken were to walk the surface, they have to be caught and sent underground. Not much people know why such a law existed.
With the thought of avenging their family and friends, the both of them made the same choice. Join Terra Sphere. This is when their paths crossed. They found out that the both of them had the same agenda, so they teamed up as pilot and operator.
At the young age of 10, they had to learn up on the basics of everything involving ACs. Through Virtual Reality (VR) tests, they were able to improve their skills.
It was only 8 years later they officially became part of Terra Sphere.
"Our family... Our friends... I can't... I WON'T let them get away with it." Ace gripping his fist hard enough to crack them.
"Even so..." Madeline tried to respond but was cut off by Ace.
"Look. I know you're worried about me. That I'd die and leave you all alone in this world... Just believe in me. The me who believes in you." Ace tapping Madeline's nose.
"Mark..." Madeline tries to say, but was cut off again by a loud cough from Ace. "Ace... That... Made no sense."
"Trying to be inspirational here." Ace sighs.
Ace's messenger started to beep. What's a messenger? It sort of looks like an iPad. Its only function is to give and receive voiced messages. And every time it receives a message, it will make a sound so annoying, even Friday from Rebecca Black would sound melodious. Nasty little buggers.
"We need your help Ace. The Diorgan Distribution Centre is being attacked by two unidentified NEXTs. This place is one of our most important facilities. The defences we placed at the area seem to be completely useless against those two. Please. Defeat them at any cost." the voice of what seemed to be a middle aged woman says.
"What the hell... Is a NEXT?" Ace, raising an eyebrow.
"NEXTs are ACs with increased energy output and booster power. They were created-" Madeline, trying to explain.
"All I needed to know! I'll go kick their asses!"
"Wait, these are nothing like ACs! They're faster and stronger and-"
"La-La-La-La! I can't hear you!"Ace, Covering his ears.
He leaves to change into his pilot outfit. Madeline on the other hand, reviews the data collected from the attack.
A few moments after that, Ace climbs up the Ace Custom. But before jumping into the cockpit, he took a minute to make a speech. Something he got fond of doing recently.
"With this hand, I will carve open the steak to..." Ace says, but most of it is both uninspirational and just doesn't make sense.
Logically, everyone ignores him whenever he does that. He jumps into the cockpit and starts up the Ace Custom. Immediately after that, Madeline spoke to him through the communicator.
"Ace, I don't know about this."
"Just believe in me!"
"It's not that. These are NEXTs we're talking about."
"And that's why the hired an ace. Trust me. I can take 'em."
"The possibility of-"
"Ace on Ace Custom... LAUNCHING!"
"Listen to me!"
"I don't care about possibilities. I KNOW I'll come back alive with a huge smile on my face. That's a promise I'll make!"
The eyes of the head part lit up and the Ace Custom immediately walked out of the garage.
Ace arrived at the Diorgan Distribution Centre. He had to use an elevator to reach the underground level. The route to the area the enemy NEXTs are at seems to be a long straight-forward tunnel. Madeline than says,
"All the defences weren't annihilated completely. Some are still active, and they will attack you."
"What? Why?" Ace, puzzled.
"Terra Sphere didn't reprogram the defences, so you'll have to fight your way through."
"Smart." Ace says sarcastically. "But that does make things slightly interesting."
He then activates his boosters to advance through the tunnel faster. He stumbles upon his first obstacle. The door. He tries everything, slashing it, shooting it, kicking it... Nothing seemed to work.
"Ace, you do know I can open the doors for you right?" Madeline asks.
"Yeaaaah. Of course I did." Ace, trying to hide the fact that he didn't have a clue.
Madeline hacks through the system and opens the door for Ace. A MT was standing behind the door. Just as it had a good lock on to the Ace Custom, it launched a large missile.
Large missiles are Armored Core's equivalent to nukes mind you. One of these is enough to take a huge chunk of AP of the Ace Custom.
Realizing that, Ace thinks of three ways to counter the missile.
Slice it. But it'll explode right in front of his face.
Shoot it. There's a high probability he'll miss. Ace can't shoot objects smaller than an MT properly.
Run. Which is highly logical as missiles explode after a set time.
But just as he is about to step on the pedal that activates the boost, the missile exploded anyway. Even though it was launched several seconds before that. That's when it hit Ace in the face. His core has a missile interception system.
A missile interception system basically fires a tiny beam at missiles to make it explode before contact. If it misses once, well, it won't shoot the same missile twice.
It didn't function this well against Mistletoe because of the speed of micro missiles and Ace's habit of strafing to the side.
Taking advantage of the explosion, which obstructs both the MT's and Ace's view, Ace shoots at the MT with his machine gun. He could pinpoint its location by using the radar built into his DRONE head part. If that gets destroyed, he still has a radar as his left back unit. Needless to say, Ace is radar crazy.
After about 20 shots, the MT finally explodes from the amount of damage. Ace activates his boost again to advance to the next corridor. After Madeline opens the door for him, that MT awaited him again. But this time, there were three of them.
"Fudge." Ace, his jaw dropping.
Kids, Ace didn't say fudge.
The MTs launches large missiles at Ace. Each MT launching one missile. That makes three large missiles headed directly at Ace.
His missile interception system managed to destroy 2 of them. But the last one was tricky. It keeps flying toward him.
Ace boosts toward his back and fires his machine gun at the large missile. After 5 missed shots, Ace says
"Screw this. Lineargun... SHOOT!"
"There's no need to call it out..." Madeline, feeling annoyed.
Ace switches to the lineargun located at his right back unit. The larger rounds should make it easier to blast the missile.
First shot. Miss. Second shot. Miss. Third shot. Miss.
"What happened to rule of three?" Ace, frustrated.
He takes a deep breath and focuses on the large missile. If he misses this time, the large missile will eat a chunk of his AP. Clearing his mind, he fires.
And misses. The large missile took about 1/8 of his AP.
"God... Dammit." Ace curses.
Either way, with the large missiles out of the MT's arsenals, taking them out would be a piece of cake.
The middle MT spotted him first and started shooting rifle bullets at him. He strafes to the right as it is already a habit. He then moves behind one MT and grabs it by the shoulder.
He shoves it in front of him using it as a body shield from the rifle bullets. The AI was incredibly stupid. It shot its own comrade while it stood in front of Ace.
Just as the body shield MT is about to explode, Ace kicks it toward the middle one, literally making it kamikaze at its own comrade.
The last remaining MT shoots at Ace. Jumping up into the air to dodge the bullets, Ace shoots some of his own bullets to damage it a little.
He lands directly in front of the MT. Quickly activating his beam sword, he cuts it open from between its legs upward to the torso, splitting it into two.
Now all that was left was to defeat the NEXTs. Ace runs to the area the data states they are at.
The two NEXTs, one a silver lightweight bipedal and the other a pink heavyweight tank-leg, ravaged the distribution centre. They destroyed the generators, buildings and vehicles in the facility.
"Daisy, seems like Terra Sphere sent an AC out for us." a man, around his thirties, piloting the silver lightweight bipedal NEXT says.
"I thought so. The fact that they would send an AC shows how vital this facility is." a girl, probably younger than Ace, piloting the pink heavyweight tank-leg NEXT responds.
Ace runs towards them and points his machinegun at the silver NEXT.
"Who the hell are you and why the hell are you destroying the facility!" he yells.
"None of your business." the girl in the pink NEXT says.
"(And why is that NEXT pink?) Madeline, any data on these two?" Ace asks.
"Yeah. They're not Hasta Caeli pilots... They're... What we call... Ravens." She answers, typing furiously on the keyboard.
"Ravens? Why is it only NOW I hear of this?" he asks.
"You never go through our intel do you?"
"Why should I?"
"As it seems, the cost to upgrade an AC to a NEXT is extremely high. Even you can't afford it for another 5 years."
"I assume these two are billionaires."
"That's a possibility... Ace... I think you should-"
"Run? HELL NO! I can take em'!"
"No, you don't get it! The chances of you winning are absolutely zero against just one of them!"
"I like a challenge!"
"These are NEXTs! Even the tank-leg NEXT can move faster than you!"
"So what! Remember! I'm an-"
"That has NOTHING to do with this! Please! I'm begging you! Just go!"
"NO!"
"Are you done arguing?" the pilot of the silver NEXT says. "Listen... Please leave. Now."
"Beowulf, this guy seems quite headstrong." The pilot of the pink NEXT says.
"That's me!" Ace yells proudly.
"Sigh. It's for the best. If you want to live to see tomorrow, then leave." the silver NEXT pilot says.
"No way." Ace, smiling confidently.
"Why do you have to be so... Stupid...?" Madeline, mumbling to herself.
"Why are you out for us?" the pink NEXT pilot asks.
"Because I was ordered to." Ace responds.
"So if they told you to put a gun in your mouth and then pull the trigger, would you do it?" she asks again
"Sh-Shut up!"
"This isn't going to end well. Fine, if you won't go, we'll exterminate you!" the silver AC pilot says.
"NEXTs detected. NEXT: Muramasa. Pilot equips auxiliary boosters to increase overall boost speed and uses dual blades as its only offense. Close range combat is not advised." The computer in the Ace Custom says.
"So, I have to stay away from the silver one." Ace biting his lip.
"NEXT detected. NEXT: Grave Maker. NEXT is built for emphasis on attack power and defence. Avoid its Back Unit laser cannon."
"And the pink one has the strongest laser cannon...?" Ace, biting his lip harder. "Any other data on these two?"
"There isn't anymore other than the fact they're Ravens. But judging from the previous conversation, the silver one is Beowulf and the pink one is Daisy." Madeline responds.
Beowulf loses his patience and uses a quick boost to move directly in front of Ace, before he even notices anything. Activating his left beam sword, short yet deadly, he cuts Ace's machinegun in half.
"What the hell!" Ace, shocked.
Beowulf follows that up by activating his right beam sword, long but very weak, and attempts to slash the Ace Custom. Countering that, Ace activates his beam sword and defends himself by clashing the two blades together.
"Why do you align yourself with Terra Sphere?" Beowulf asks.
"That's... None of your business!" Ace, shooting the lineargun on his back at the Muramasa.
The shot hit the Muramasa directly at its head. It was stunned for a split second, but Ace takes advantage of this by kicking it back and charging forward to stab the core, effectively ending the fight quickly.
But Beowulf uses a quick boost to dodge the stab. He then uses both blades and cuts of the Ace Custom's left arm, leaving Ace's lineargun as his only offense.
Ace tries to get a lock on Beowulf so that he can shoot him down, but he boosts as far back as possible. He checks his radar only to find out that the Grave Maker is behind him.
Daisy fires her railgun and hi-laser rifle at point blank range. It was too late for Ace to react as the blue bursts of energy hit him, leaving a spherical explosion.
The recoil sent Ace flying, having to use his legs to grind on the ground for balance. When he came to a complete stop, Beowulf lands directly in front of him and activates both blades.
His jaw dropping, Ace tries to boost backwards to escape but the Muramasa is faster than the Ace Custom. The speed difference is undeniable.
Beowulf yells at Ace," You possess neither will!" cutting off what remains of the Ace Custom's left arm.
"Nor reason!" cutting off the Ace Custom's right arm.
"Nor resolve!" this time, kicking the Ace Custom back.
Panting a lot, Ace looks behind him just to find the Grave Maker there again, this time with its laser cannon all charged up. He could hear the static shock of all the energy being collected from a mile away.
"You align yourself with people you know NOTHING about! You follow them blindly not knowing what they did or will do!" Daisy shouts, firing the laser cannon.
As the large blue energy approaches, Ace tries to dodge it by jumping out of the way. But both his legs got caught in the blast, destroying them.
With the legs gone, he couldn't boost properly anymore because the booster on the legs are what guide the AC, sort of like the steering wheel.
"Shit..." Ace mumbles.
"No..." Madeline, breaking a tear.
Beowulf approached what's left of the Ace Custom slowly. He grabs its head and lifts it of the ground.
"Take your last breath." Beowulf says, stabbing the core with his left beam sword, and then tossing the AC aside.
They glare at the now disembodied Ace Custom laying on the ground with a frustrated look.
"Did it really have to come down to this...?" Daisy mumbles to herself.
"We had no choice." Beowulf, with regret in his voice.
The both of them activated their boosters and escaped the facility.
"Ace... Please respond... I know you have some sort of dumb quote or anything of the sort..." Madeline, crying.
But there wasn't any sort of response.
"Just say something Mark! ANYTHING!" Madeline yells.
The silence is very apparent in the Terra Sphere HQ. Even a nail falling on the ground would be the loudest sound at the moment.
"I knew he wouldn't last forever..." the head mechanic mumbles.
Madeline doesn't respond to the head mechanic. She lays her head on the keyboard, using her arms to cover her face.
Although everyone regrets it, they had to mark Ace as killed in action.
To be continued...
