I opened the door to the office to see what was going on today. It had been almost a week since the raid of the Iron Fist base and all AC repairs were completed. I was eager to get another chance to pilot an AC in real combat. "After reviewing satellite images and Intel we may have found the location of another small base. The AC from one week ago has been spotted in several of these photos. This might be a great chance to kill two birds with one sto…oh hey Monkey!" I greeted the director and informed her that there was no reason to restart the briefing and that I had grasped the basic idea of the plan. I would be accompanying AC Keystone and a consort that was specifically selected for the mission. Basically our goal would be to destroy that mystery AC and search the base for Intel that could lead us to other zones of enemy operation and eventually their headquarters. The consort would be showing up shortly to explain to us his part in the mission.

"Hello everyone, you can call me AC Demon Seed." His AC consisted of the lightest weight parts available. It had a pair of skinny humanoid legs, a high heat output handgun, a left hand flamethrower, expensive radar, and a 20% ammo capacity magazine. "The target AC, who we will designate AC Concrete, was able to take a large amount of damage and still operate. My AC design relies less on piercing his armor and more on overheating his systems and destroying the enemy from the inside out. I will need your support to get in close enough to use this strategy. Only after that AC is knocked out will we be able to search the base efficiently. Any questions?"

We all stood silently for a minute, shook our heads, and started loading up the ACs. I looked up at my AC. Junker's old reverse joint legs were looking worn and his amour had many scars. I decided that after this mission or the next I would do what I needed to do so that I could build an AC more to my standards. But Junker would do for now. Keystone loaded up in the same transport as I did. Demon Seed would be dropping in from a smaller transport after the ground was secure or AC Concrete was spotted. I was skeptical of Demon Seed arriving in the middle of the mission, but the plan relied on him and his ammo was scarce. We had about 30 minutes to relax and think before the transport would open up and we would fall thousands of feet to the ground.

An announcement played over the intercom in the transport. "Several long range cannons and anti air defense guns have been spotted on the base. You will be dropped off at the edge of the combat operations area and move in from there. We don't want to risk this bird being shot out of the sky or your ACs getting blown up before you touch down. Take them out quickly so AC Demon Seed can be deployed. Good luck!" We hit the ground within visual sight of the guns. The second transport began to circle the area waiting for us to call upon our consort. Keystone set up a position and knelt down with his chain gun. I decided to do the same and knelt down with my grenade launcher. We counted four long range cannons but the AA guns where nowhere to be found. Keystone started the assault with a quick burst of chain gun and dispatched of the first gun. I launched a grenade round towards my target. It was slightly off, but the explosion of the round took out the gun. Keystone took out his second target, but my target had zoned in on my position and started throwing large rounds my way. "Monkey, get out of there now!" I took his advice and boosted forward towards the base. Without noticing it I found myself almost directly on top of the AA guns. I did a quick sweep and disposed of them with my machine gun. I was already down to about 200 rounds of machine gun and 14 grenades.

My next target was that long range cannon. "Keystone, I'll distract the gun. See if you can't gain some distance on it and lock on with your missile launcher." Without a word he took off to the left as I boosted straight towards the gun. It fired a round at me, but it overshot and exploded behind me. It rattled my AC and I heard small pieces of shrapnel and debris slamming into me. All systems were go and it seemed that no major damage had been done so I over boosted to the right and attempted to open up some more space for Keystone. "Hurry the hell up, I thought. If I get nailed by one of these rounds I'll be toast." Shortly after, a swarm of missiles shot toward that gun like a nest of angry wasp. "AC Junker to transport plane, the area is clear. Please deliver the package." Then Keystone replied with his usual sarcasm, "I'm not signing for that crap. Please return to sender."

AC Demon Seed dropped directly in front of the base. We all rendezvoused and met him at the entrance. All though this base was slightly smaller than the previous one, the doors seemed to be significantly thicker. I suggested blowing the thing down. I fired off about 50 rounds of machine gun, but it was ineffective. I attempted to use my laser blade, but there was some sort of shield providing defense against energy based weaponry. I told the others to back up and proceeded to launch about four grenades into the door. They seemed to be getting somewhere, but it wasn't good enough. I decided to make a call to base. "Director, this is AC Junker requesting your immediate assistance. The big bad wolf huffed and puffed, but this door isn't going down. Grenades had little effect on the target. Is it possible to get AC Barrage down here and see if we can't blow this thing into pieces?" After some static she responded. "Team, this is your director. I have no Ravens able to pilot AC Barrage at this time. Not until the pilot recovers from last week. I will be airdropping a weapon down that should do the trick." I hoped that she was right. I didn't like the feeling of three ACs bunched up in front of some enemy base out in the middle of nowhere. After what seemed like forever a high flying plane dropped a large crate that parachuted to the ground.

I approached the crate and removed the weapon from inside it. It was a right arm blade. This particular model was good for only 4 uses, but it was the most powerful one on the market. I'm not sure why the director had been storing a right arm blade as they are often seen as useless, but I wasn't about to complain. We decided that I would be the one to carry this weapon so I jettisoned my machine gun and equipped the blade. "Alright, I hope you guys are ready for whatever is inside this door because I'm about to breech." As I triggered the blade some sort of piston pulled back the arm of my AC. After a slight delay the arm released with a tremendous amount of force. A large opening was left where the door used to be. We entered a large open bay with some maintenance equipment, a small terminal, and a single armored core. "That's our target! AC Concrete. I'd recognize him anywhere, let's take him out!" I remembered the AC I first battled one week ago and Keystone was correct. That was him for sure. But before any of us could fire a shot off the power went out suddenly. A surge of energy could be seen flowing through some large power cables hooked into the AC. Sparks flew in every direction and finally the emergency power kicked in. AC Concrete opened up communications with us. "You won't be so lucky this time. My AC and skills are on a whole different level from last our previous meeting. It's your last chance to get out of here with your lives."

That was enough talking for me. I had to attack him. But I had no openings. My swords were only good for close combat. And Kneeling down with a grenade launcher would leave me wide open for attack. So I decided to move to the other end of the bay to find a position. AC Keystone opened up with his rifle, but he was not able to connect any shots. He locked on with his missile launcher and fired, but AC Concrete dodged them effortlessly. AC Concrete was moving around impossibly fast for his weight and it seemed like he had an infinite supply of energy. The hardest thing to believe was his reflexes. He continued to dodge every rifle round fired by Keystone. I fired a grenade as soon as the enemy hit the ground, hoping to nail him while he was immobile from the shock of landing. But he moved as soon as I fired and the grenade exploded far away from him. AC Demon Seed tried stun him with his handgun, but he only grazed his target a few times. When Demon Seed got in close enough to use his flamethrower he was greeted with an energy wave from Concrete's SOL blade. He attempted this maneuver several times but even the speed of his light weight design could not close the gap between the two ACs and his handgun ammo was getting low. If we didn't think of a plan soon we would be out of ammo without the enemy expending a single round.

"I got an idea guys. Demon Seed, I need you to keep trying to get in close with your flame thrower. Keystone, when AC Concrete is turned around I need you to open up with your chain gun. If this manages to distract him I'll get in close and take him out. Let's do this!" Demon Seed continued his assault, but this time he moved in closer. Although he was now barely dodging Concrete's energy blade waves, he managed to heat him up a little with his flame thrower. Keystone knelt down and fired an endless stream of chain gun. Several rounds found their way into Concrete's amour and it seemed that we had a sliver of hope. When I felt that our target was distracted enough, I went in for the kill. I hit my over boost and took off like a rocket towards Concrete. Before I was in front of him I pulled back my right arm blade. This strike would take perfect timing or a good amount of dumb luck. Right before our AC's collided my right arm blade released and found a nice home inside of the lower section of the enemy's core. As it fell to the ground it fired off several rockets in quick succession. It seemed as though there was still some fight left in him. A hit from that blade would destroy or severely cripple an average AC. But somehow this one was still fighting. I backed up and instructed Demon Seed to get up here fast and burn Concrete into the ground. He unloaded every last drop of his flamethrower and we watched the AC smolder in front of us. Surely there would be nothing left inside that AC.

Keystone was the first to speak. "Alright guys…we got the job done. I just hope that the missions don't continue to end up like the last two or we might be in trouble. That was some quick thinking Monkey…but it might be time you trade AC Junker in for something that can handle missions like this. It's probably only going to get harder as we go on and improvising can't completely replace a solid AC design. Well let's search this base and get out of here. I'm just about ready to head home." I took a look at the maintenance equipment in the bay. It wasn't enough to maintain an AC. I guess it was being used to repair the generator that supercharged our target AC. Keystone downloaded the data from the terminals and called in our transports.

As we boarded the planes AC Demon Seed informed us that he would be spending a few days at the base while he waited for the arena challenge. It would be a small tournament that offered free repairs and a nice chunk of prize money that went up with each win. The winner would become a normal raven that would stay at the base, and any other entrants could still be looked at for consorts if they impressed the director. Of course these battles were all being broadcasted and a large sum of money was to be earned by our director for further operations. He told me that I could enter against a few of our regularly hired consorts in side battles (since I obviously already had a spot as a normal raven on the base) and make a little bit of money and have some fun. I could only laugh at what he said next though. He told me to "Be careful in the tournament" and that it was "a dangerous game". I wondered if he realized what we had just been through on the last mission. Oh well. Some people just lack in common sense I suppose. A dangerous game…