Chapter I : March 12, 62 ANDW

In the city of Wuhan, which is located in Southeast Asia, the citizens were becoming conspicuous of Hex's defenses. Recently, a pretty well armed trade regulating base was destroyed in a matter of minutes. Rumors were floating around that a renegade Normal went crazy and bombarded the base. There was no evidence of this, however. Not very many people enjoyed overrule by The Hex Organization, so this news brought some interest into the lives of commoners. Even the school children found the current events slightly amusing.

"Élise, are you free this evening? We still have to take care of that poetry project," asked a normal school girl, speaking with a friend.

"Oh, sorry. I have some business I have to take care of tonight, and it'll take up the majority of my evening. I should have my free time back tomorrow, though," replied another young girl.

This young girl, Élise, began walking away from the central district and ended up making her way west, into living quarters. From there, she came across what seemed to be her apartment. She turned her laptop computer on, and instantly, a blaring message was showing.

"Infiltrate Hex's Beijing Central Base to locate and destroy highly powered missiles and bombs stored in the eastern quarters. Main defensive force is a squad of Normals with backup MTs. Hmph, like a bunch of MTs and Normals will slow me down. Just as long as they don't fire those missiles on me, I'll be fine. Mission confirmed. Execution will begin at 00:01 in the morning." Élise looked at her bedside clock, making a quick mental note of the time. It was 18:07 in the evening. "Well, in the mean time, I can sleep. I don't get much of that these days."

"What do you mean we were attacked by a Next? This is odd. No one can pilot those monstrosities anymore," questioned the one of the higher ranked officers of The Hex Organization.

"It is not certain, sir, but all speculations lead to that answer. In approximately four minutes, our armed Southeast Asia Trade Regulations Base was decimated. No means of firepower, not even an extremely well-trained Normal pilot, can destroy a base in that time. Normals would take longer, and bombs would have the job done in less than a minute, not to mention we can intercept bombs and missiles. When you consider the options, there really is no other explanation," explained a sergeant.

"This is absurd. Well? Where is this so-called Next pilot now," relayed the higher ranked officer.

"We only had the one base in that area, but it has already been four days since the attack, so it could be halfway across the planet by now."

"Destroying another one of our bases?"

"That would be the logical assumption, yes. Should we send a warning message to the other commanding officers?"

"No, that would mean our Asian side facilities have failed. I refuse to accept defeat from an unknown being. We at least need to confirm it, but we should take it out before it does more damage."

"But sir! There's no way to tell that this Next is still even in our hemisphere anymore. If another Hex base were to be destroyed, then other nations might see Hex as a collapsing company. This is not in our best interest," concluded the sergeant.

"The Next is not a problem. Hell, we still have Nexts in our hangars! It's the pilot that's the problem. That Raven, as pilots are called, has AMS compatibility. We have to kill, no, better yet, convert this pilot to Hex's way of thinking. If we had the world's only Raven with AMS compatibility, then we could gain an even stronger hold on the resisting nations. In fact, I have a hunch that this pilot is still in Eastern Asia. We can increase defenses at Bangkok, Hanoi, Hong Kong, and Beijing. I want the commanders of those areas notified before sunrise," finished the higher ranked officer.

"Yes, sir. I will instruct them that Commander Howards orders a strengthening of defenses and a watch for Next machinery." The sergeant left Howards' room.

The commander sighed, "a Next, huh? This Raven will be a thorn in my side, I'm sure. As long as I take care of this before the generals, commanders, or other colonels find out. If that happens…well, I just hope it doesn't."

Élise's alarm started buzzing at 22:30. It was about time for her mission to commence. She crawled out of bed, lazy eyed, before walking out of her front door. At around 23:00, Élise was a good few kilometers west of the city limits. Moving around a bunch of branches and camouflage, a great piece of machinery kneeled before her. After taking a few more yawns, she crawled into the cockpit.

"Oh shoot," she started, "I forgot to rewrite the OS again. This old Leonemeccanica core isn't fully compatible with these Rosenthal arms. I guess I'll just do it later. Hmm, it looks like I'll have to over boost the majority of the way there if I want to commence the operation on time. This is what I get for sleeping rather than preparing, I guess."

With that, Élise started the boosters up, and headed north toward Beijing. The Next flew above the tree line with great speeds reaching that of over nine hundred kilometers per hour.

"Let me see here. I'll reach Beijing a little under an hour from now. I guess that I should start rewriting that OS." Élise began bringing up several interfaces that only she could possibly read or understand. "Reset power to weight ratio, adjust speed parameters, redistribute energy from Kojima ion pump, shift remaining energy to back thrusters, increase vertical speed, booster energy output maximized, limit Kojima energy use on primal armor, recalibrate the focusing tools, switch lock-on to manual…" She continued to make a vocal note of every single detail in the Next's new operating system.

Forty-five minutes had passed before Élise was nearing firing range of the Beijing base. She was almost done rewriting the operating system before her radar picked up two bogeys. "Maybe if I go about one hundred kilometers faster, I'll be able to stay off of their radar," Élise thought. She quickly accelerated to catch speeds up to one thousand kilometers per hour. No regular person could withstand these conditions and still work inside of a Next cockpit. "Well, they aren't shooting at me, so I guess that I bypassed them." She continued on her route, but the energy she used in that boost required her to slow down to about seven hundred and fifty kilometers per hour.

In a few more minutes, rifle bullets were being cast upon her. "Damn, I couldn't finish rewriting it in time. I guess that I had forgotten how long it takes to make one of these from scratch." She sighed, "I'll just have to improvise, then. Oh, wait a minute; I didn't even set the parameters for my arm weapons! What a drag. I'm going to have to dodge until I get these set up." Élise's Next had two high powered energy rifles on the arm units. They were not the same, for the right weapon was a plasma rifle and the left was a laser rifle. The shoulder units could launch eight heat seeking missiles at once, four from each side. The two back units consisted of a very strong motion and elevation radar and an extremely powerful long range pulse sniper rifle. This high powered sniper rifle had more firepower than the other two energy weapons combined. However, such a power comes at a price. It is difficult to aim, and the precision isn't exactly accurate. Yet the firing speed was greatly superior to those of other sniping weapons.

Guard MTs and stationed Normals were continuously firing on the Next, but if bullets weren't being deflected by the primal armor, then they just missed completely. "Set EN levels proportionate, I'll fix that later. Firing speed and pinpoint precision, I can take care of that myself. I'll ignore the sniper rifle's schematics for now. Laser and plasma rifles are online, bringing up the manual lock-on system. Alright, now I can get things done." And with that, the time of day hit 00:01.

"Beijing is decimated? How? I thought I told you to increase security," voiced Howards.

"We did, sir. We stationed Normals on night watch and did everything possible, but the whole base is gone, along with the prototype explosives. However…"

"However what, sergeant?"

"Unknown to all of the bases you specified in our previous meeting, I had reconnaissance units placed outside of the bases to help explain what our threat really is. Look at these visuals. It is clear that we are dealing with a Next, but we already knew that. Pay close attention, the Next doesn't fire on the base for the first two minutes of its operation. It's just…dodging everything."

"The weapons aren't set."

"Huh? What do you mean, Commander?"

"The arms aren't even up, and the back weapon isn't even online, or so it seems. The Raven must have been making adjustments, and our Normals and MTs started firing on the Next before it could finish."

"Really, now…I can see what you're getting at, but there isn't much opportunity for what seems to be a highly skilled Raven with AMS compatibility to be lingering around a deadly weapons base making adjustments to the Next's weapons. It just doesn't seem likely."

"It might be my imagination, but that isn't the point. We have confirmed that we are dealing with a Next. I will send a personal notice to the higher officers; you alert all bases in East Asia."

"Yes, sir," the sergeant concluded, and left the room. Howards sat down in a rather large business chair and examined the visuals of the Next.

"If only we could capture the Raven. Sadly, now the higher authorities will know, and this Raven will just have to be exterminated. What a shame."

Night passed and morning came in the city of Wuhan. Élise was just starting to open her eyes when she noticed her laptop blaring brightly.

"You have to be kidding me…" She walked over to check a message from headquarters. "Beijing base is destroyed, good work, blah blah blah, the next mission is in Shanghai. Decommission the prototype high powered laser cannons. The mission will commence on the fifteenth at 08:36. Mission confirmed." She yawned at the sight of the next mission. "Today is Sunday, isn't it? I have two days before the next mission, they I'll probably be relocated. I have to do that poetry project with Daiyu, don't I? I guess I'll go take care of that."

Élise spent the next day and a half as a seemingly normal high school student living in Southeast Asia. She always seemed laid back and calm in front of the regular folk. News of the Beijing base being smitten was delightful in the eyes of the majority of the Wuhan populace. They were somewhat happy that Hex was now on the defensive side for a change. Not only the citizens in Wuhan, but people all over Southeast Asia.

Tuesday rolled around, and somehow Élise woke up early. She set her alarm for 06:00, but she awoke around 05:43. She sleepily made movements toward her laptop to examine a new message. It was just a reminder from headquarters mentioning that the mission was today. But with that message, she instantly forced her body to wake up, and she made her way to where her Next was located.

Once inside of her cockpit, she began to start the systems up. "Shanghai is half of the distance from here to Beijing, so I won't need to over boost. Plus I managed to wake up early, so I can take it easy on the thrusters. I think that I'll go ahead and begin today's operation with this pulse sniper rifle." She ignited the Next's main thrusters, as she headed east toward Hex's Shanghai base.

Élise slowed down to a stop about fifty kilometers south of Hex's Shanghai base. "Alright, now I can see how great this pulse sniper rifle really is." She brought her right back weapon online, and switched to manual targeting. Élise knew the faults of this type of weapon, so the average auto-targeting system would not be of much help to her. Slowly, carefully, and calmly she moved the barrel of the sniper. Every millimeter was important. At this distance, two millimeters to the left could mean a whole kilometer. All of the small adjustments seemed to be so perfect and right. "Heat temperaments, recoil shock, wind blockage, discharging energy," she vocally noted. It took a little time, but Élise had pinpointed the exact position of the highly powered laser cannons, as well as taking in all possible factors.

The moment 08:36 hit the clock was the moment she pulled the trigger. Laser cannon number one of three was destroyed in a single hit. With the sniper rifle still online, Élise boosted about 15 kilometers to the east of her first position, and quickly set up for another shot. She was now tried on time since the enemy knew they were being fired upon. Yet in a matter of seconds, she let the second shot fly. It was a precise hit. There was only one more left, but it was on the northern side of the base. She took the pulse sniper offline and pulled out her energy rifles. Boosting at speeds of five hundred kilometers per hour, Élise found her way about a kilometer in the air above the base. She took aim at the final prototype laser cannon, and launched about six rounds from each rifle along with eight of the Next's shoulder missiles.

The primary objective of the mission was complete, but Élise wasn't done. Satisfaction would not have been granted until she destroyed all of the Normals and MTs in the facility. So she did just that. Boosting around the entire base, Élise took free shots at any and all enemy crafts that were in her way. "Too easy," she thought to herself.

"Dammit, Howards, how could you have let this happen? We have an AMS compatible Raven flying around out there destroying our bases one by one, and it took you this long to notify us," argued a Hex general.

"My deepest apologies, sir, but it was unconfirmed as to what we were dealing with. I made it my priority to define and proclaim that it truly was a Next that was against us."

Another general sighed, "denouncing him will not improve our situation, General Sleks. Howards, do you have any more collected data on this Next?"

"Yes, this morning the same Next attacked one of our bases at Shanghai. This base was housing prototype laser cannons. Here are the visuals."

"This is outrageous! We must deal with this immediately. I refuse to have the Hex organization be picked apart by something that shouldn't exist. I'm ordering full time reinforcements to the whole Asia sector. This thing cannot give rebels any ideas of surpassing our military rule," concluded General Sleks.

"Wait, general, if you would let me express my opinion on the matter, I believe there is a more efficient solution," Howards proclaimed.

"A more efficient solution? Continue."

"With the destruction of three of our major bases in the Southeast Asian area, I do believe that this Next will be heading overseas toward the North American continent. It would be productive to set up—"

"You have no basis or evidence of those claims, Howards. It could be heading into Europe for all we know," mentioned General Hadyn, one of the more famous generals in The Hex Organization.

"Ah, but I do, sir. The Next has destroyed one trading facility and two prototype weapons factories. It is clear to me that not only is the objective of this person to disrupt our economy flow, but to halt our progressions military wise. North America has several prototype weapons facilities accompanying several trade regulating bases."

"He does have a point there, Hadyn. The best thing we can do is stop this before it gets out of hand. I'm increasing my North American defenses on the west coast, you would all be better off if you did the same to your forces in your North American regions," said General Eira.

"I agree, Sleks, you should strengthen your forces as well."

"So now this is a waiting game? If we know it's going to be on the west coast, then my southern forces aren't moving an inch. They will keep at the regular pace."

"Howards, you are dismissed from this meeting. I will overlook this information with the other generals again," explained Hadyn.

"Yes, sir." Howards left the business room in a calm manner. "Well, that's taken care of. Oh, Raven, I will yet have my way with you. You have one more mission here in Asia if my hunches are correct, and I will be there waiting for you. I just hope that our confrontation can avoid bloodshed."