Buck didn't know what they were going to need those guns for, but the fact remained that they were going to need them.
He was the first to make a move towards the cache, immediately setting his sight on an Alternator. The others seemed hesitant to move forward, still at a loss for what to do in the situation.
As for him, he didn't care what had happened. What mattered to him now, was getting out, and it seemed that this was the fastest path towards that goal.
Grabbing a CAR, he turned and tossed it to the MCOR gal who'd woken up after him. If he had to take charge, then he wanted her as his second. A lot of people didn't trust Simulacrums, so he'd need someone human if anyone was going to listen to him.
She caught it easily, and nodded in understanding. After his actions, the rest of them seemed more willing to get a move on. The Pilot from the Wings moved forward and retrieved an R-97. If that's what he was going to be comfortable with, then maybe Buck had underestimated his ability on the ground rather than the sky.
Both of the IMC Pilots reached for an R-201 carbine each, mirroring the standard that was prevalent amongst IMC infantry units. Buck watched them very carefully, but allowed them access. He didn't want them thinking they had the upper hand here, but he wasn't going to ostracize them if they truly weren't responsible for the situation.
The male MCOR Pilot found himself a Hemlock amongst the other firearms in the cache. Unlike everyone else who simply accepted it, he checked the magazine stored in the gun already. After confirming it was indeed loaded, his face took on a grim expression as he clicked the mag back into place.
Deciding to investigate the arena further, he made a note of the environment. There were buildings around them, obviously fake and constructed in the same uniform manner that colonized worlds used to quickly build structures. Right now though, they looked more like they belonged at a testing site or a gun range than a neighborhood.
There was a fake grass that covered the ground, made of a plastic-like material and fibrous blades. Rocks and boulders had been placed in strategic locations, though he couldn't tell if those were legitimate or also farce.
A large group of hexagonal panels formed an abnormal wall in front of them that made him think it was really separating two parts of one arena. That would mean that they were only one half … and perhaps whatever opponents they were up against were on the other side.
Buck turned to the group and mentally took a deep breath. Physically, he didn't have any lungs, so it was a moot point. "Alright so here's the deal."
Everyone immediately fell silent and paid rapt attention to him. Maybe his intimidation as a Simulacrum would pay off after all.
"There's six of us. No more, no less. And to be honest, that's not a lot to work with. On the battlefield, one Pilot can make all the difference. But this …" He shook his head. "This isn't a battlefield, this is just a fishbowl, some killbox designed for us to be funneled together while some freak observes us." He gestured at the anomaly he'd found earlier. "I'm fairly certain that something is behind that wall, and we're gonna have to face it."
He shifted from foot to foot. Speeches weren't really his thing. "But we can't do it unless we work together here. We may be six Pilots, but we're six Pilots upon whom someone managed to get the jump on. Whoever's put us here, they have the capability to subdue us more than adequately. We're a bit out of our league here, and in an environment like this we're going to be sitting ducks. No backup, no Titans. Just us."
He pointed at them in a full circle, moving from one person to the next. "That's why above all else, remember that we're a team. Right now, previous alliances don't matter." The IMC and MCOR Pilots looked at each other's opposing colors. He could tell that there was some disagreement with that, but thankfully they all held their tongues. The Wings Pilot kept his attention on Buck, emphasizing that he was capable of properly listening. Good man.
The male MCOR Pilot suddenly realized something. "Wait … my Titan! I remember! I was with my Titan, we were in a fight … where is he?"
The other Pilots took notice of that fact as well, and suddenly were a lot less comfortable. Buck could feel it; a sort of emptiness in his mind, like something had been severed; the neural link.
What the hell had they done?
"How very astute," came the mysterious voice from the speakers again. "For some who claim to care about your Titans, you seemed quite forgetful for a while."
"What did you do to him?!" the Pilot shouted out.
"Magnetic disruptors, as I'm sure you know, are quite useful for disabling Simulacrums."
Buck could feel everyone's eyes on his back as he stared at the ceiling. Now he knew how they'd gotten him, at least. Simulacrums weren't as easy to knock out as a human Pilot, so he'd been a bit curious about their method.
"Titans simply need a larger version." The voice sounded pleased with herself, like she was admiring her own ingenuity. Definitely a narcissist if he'd ever seen one. Or, heard one. "As such, each of your Titans has been captured along with you, and are currently being held in a separate wing of the facility. Your links with them have been suppressed."
Buck made a note of that. Facility. Maybe there was a way to bust out of here at some point. He decided to keep her talking so he could snag more information she let slip. "Why haven't you just destroyed them already? Why keep them around when you already have us?" He was thankful that EV wasn't dead yet, at least if they were telling the truth; but it still confused him.
"We'll get to that in a minute. For now, I think it's time you meet your opponents."
With a pulse of cyan light, the hexagon panels forming the anomalous wall began to turn transparent starting from the outer edges and moving inward. They revealed another side to the arena as he'd thought, one complete with more test buildings, grass, and-
He saw the enemies they were supposed to fight, and felt his processors skip a line or two.
They were other Pilots.
From his viewpoint, he could see three MCOR, one standard Hammond IMC, and two Pilots who belonged to General Marder's ARES Division, complete with their grey and red schemed armor. Three Militia, three IMC.
They seemed just as nervous as his team was, and kept glancing up at the ceiling to listen to what the voice had to say. He assumed that the gap in her speech must have been due to her enlightening them on the situation as well.
He glanced upward. "Is this some sick joke, or what?"
"It's not a joke at all. In fact, it's more of an observational experiment on the fight patterns of various Pilots." She didn't sound like she was laughing, but he could detect a small bit of sadistic satisfaction in her voice. "Of course, sometimes I like to play with my food."
"So you just … you just kidnap Pilots and throw them in here?" He shook his head in disbelief. "What are twelve Pilots gonna do for you?"
"How naive to think that you're special. There are much more than twelve of you."
So they weren't the only arena. This could not bode well for anyone.
"But to answer your question, you're going to fight each other for me."
He crossed his arms. "No way. I'm not going to fight other Pilots for your enter-"
"This is where your Titans come in."
He froze.
"Your Titans are cooperating so well because they've been informed that if they rebel, their corresponding Pilot will be terminated. I wonder how that loyalty will hold up when compared to yours?"
He waved a shaking fist at the ceiling. "If you think that you can just-"
"Here are the rules. The match continues until all of one team have been killed. If you refuse to fight, your Titan will be terminated. If you die, your Titan will be terminated. At the end, the survivors will be grouped with survivors of other Live Fire matches."
The female IMC Pilot yelled, "What kind of system is that?! Do we even have a chance at freedom?"
Now, the voice chuckled softly. "I suppose you'll see if you survive. The Live Fire Match will begin in one minute."
Buck looked back at the team on the opposite side, and locked gazes with one of the MCOR Pilots. He could see the regret in her eyes, but that didn't stop her and the rest of their team from reluctantly positioning themselves for a skirmish.
Regardless of if they wanted it or not, Buck realized that they were in for a fight.
Quickly he turned to the rest of the group. "Callsigns, now."
The male IMC quickly stated, "Demarco, Hammond."
He was followed by the female IMC who muttered with a flutter in her voice, "Peridot, Hammond."
Buck stared at the Wings Pilot who grunted, "Rose, WOH."
"Klein, MCOR," stated the male MCOR Pilot.
Finally, the female MCOR looked at him. "Irish, MCOR."
He nodded after having learned all their names, and then pointed to himself. "Buck, ACES."
The man he now knew as Rose chuckled. "I was wondering about that black getup of yours. I don't see too many of you out and about."
"It's a selective division," he replied curtly. He stared at the hexagonal wall as the woman's voice came back on the speaker. "Ten seconds."
"You think we can pull this off?" whispered Irish.
Buck gave a synthetic sigh, and braced himself for combat. "If we want us and our Titans to live, we'll have to."
The machinery within the panels began to maneuver itself into a way that would quickly pull the hexagons apart, allowing the two teams access to one another.
For a moment, he let his mind wander. If he died, EV would too. But that also meant that for every Pilot he killed, he'd be dooming some other Titan. Somberly, he suppressed that line of thought.
Sometimes, you had to lose a battle to win the war.
"Five."
"Four."
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
"Begin."
And he did.