A/N: Back again to continue this...thing i guess.
One thing im gonna make sure to do is keep the IS main protagonist (Ichika) as safe as can be. I love that the doofus wouldn't hurt a fly if he could help it but the abuse he gets on an hourly basis makes me wonder how isn't he hospitalized.
So our dear Raven will make it a habit of getting him out if the splash zone.
Being in an IS role-play discord server i got an idea of how to portray XA-26483...you got an idea on the prologue.
The folks there gave me a few ideas on how to handle interactions as well so that is a decent weight off. Thank you guys a lot.
I will get a few more AC characters cross over. If you payed attention you'll know who they are and how they will interact with the Raven.
Now let's continue
The Vital protocol was designed by the Artificial intelligence IBIS in the event that the Silent Line was disposed and the Raven succesed in opening the gates to it's governing Layered complex....The transportation platform was his reward so to speak...take him somewhere away from fighting...along with a few others.
The protocol was linked to a system designed to disperse a chemical agent made to counteract and destroy the last vestiges of pollution and allow the damage caused by the 3rd Great Destruction to be repaired was found in its memory banks.
Signals sent to other AI's guarding similar underground remains of humanity resulted in a mass gathering of people to the surface as Layered cities all over the world opened up and allowed the human race to return back to their rightful place.
A plan that started with the 'death' of the Controller ended with the world healing itself.
How ironic that something that was to be feared in both fiction and real life gave humanity the key to it's greatest achievement.
It took a few decades to fully recover but mankind finally reached it's peak again and the events that would nearly bring it to heel again never took place.
A new corporations appearance and goal to control ancient technology that would leave the world in tatters and a Raven's ambition to launch an all out war against the ruling powers further worsening the state of things never happened.
Instead the Corporations would pool their resources and aim towards restoring their planet, aiming to return to humanity's peak.
The year is 08XX, nearly a century since the events of the Silent Line incident took place.
Earth had been nearly revitalized, with scientists dedicating the world towards that process studying and mass producing the machine found in the schematics that were taken from the AI.
However a long time later, a new Element called the Kojima Particle would be created.
From that would come the 4th generation of Armored Cores called NEXT'S and a conflict that would make everything in the past look tame by comparison bringing the world as close to its doom as it would ever get.
That however is not where our story continues.
Rather, it begins in a world where Armored Cores, the Silent Line, Layered and everything that came with them didn't exist. Nor was the world about to implode on itself.
The year is 2045, and mankind has reached the height of the second great Industrial Revolution. Humanoid machines, known as Infinite Stratos, were designed in hopes they could one day reach the unknown frontier known as space. However, out of 7 billion people on Earth, only females were able to pilot an Infinite Stratos, or an IS for short.
The first known IS was an unknown machine, designed specifically for combat purposes. An unknown hacker infiltrated the government's database, and launched several ballistic missiles, all of them aimed directly at Japan.
These missiles were destroyed by the IS. The government, after seeing the overwhelming power of the IS, deemed it too dangerous, and tried to destroy their own creation.
However, there was nothing that could bring it down. An armada of Air Force planes, sea vessels, and even tanks were destroyed, yet strangely, no human lives were lost.
In the end, only the IS was left standing, vanishing into parts unknown. It was later declared that an IS would not be allowed for use in the military, rather only used for data collecting and sports purposes.
Currently, there is only one school that teaches women how to control an IS, which is located in Japan.
The creator of the IS, and its mysterious source, known as the IS Core, Tabane Shinonono, created 467 IS Cores in total, yet for reasons unknown, she has refused to create further IS Cores. Because of her intellect and value, she has since become the most wanted individual on the planet, constantly on the move.
Our story puts the focus on a pair of young men that unwittingly made history. One, the first male to ever pilot an Infinite Stratos. And the other, a survivor of humanity's worst days, looking towards new horizons.
The IS Academy, as its name suggested, an educational corporation meant to nurture IS controllers. The Japanese government sees it as a principle and duty to fund it and run it. However, any and all results of the research conducted there are revealed to the entire world due to the common agreement, and at the same time, Japan has no right to neither remain silent nor hide them.
No matter what happens in this school, the Japanese government has to intervene fairly, and has the obligation of settling these under the premises that the other countries in the treaty have agreed on.
Also, the school has opened its doors to foreign students without any conditions, and the Japanese government is to provide protection—as according to the contents of the IS treaty regarding IS pilot training agencies. This is the school's code of discipline.
Built on an Island offshore of the nation, it could only be reached by monorail which connected it to the mainland. An admittedly futuristic look with the its many domes and the branch-like tower in the middle of it all, it was all toned down by the parks and nature around it, providing a balance of sorts.
The reason behind its creation, out in the middle of the pacific ocean, was to allow countries to interact with it, in spite of the long standing rule that no government was to directly interfere with any student in the academy or get involved in the running of the school.
In a way, it was considered to be neutral ground, and virtually almost all the students were given diplomatic immunity, unless a situation had occurred in which such immunity was to be revoked.
It was still early in the year, with the school semester being 3 months away. The only residents- occupants were the school faculty: Teachers making preparations, janitorial staff to make sure everything is squeaky clean and engineering staff who ran repairs and maintenance throughout the Academy to make sure the whole place ran like Clockwork.
All students were girls as per the course of them being the only gender capable of piloting the IS and most of the staff were women themselves: Most of them being either candidates themselves or test pilots.
Two of those individuals were working overtime due to an unprecedented event.
More specifically they were presently at the tech room, next to the maintenance hangar.
Said room was designed, for IS software maintenance and analyzing experimental equipment.
It was a common occurrence for political rivals from all countries to send a representative to hinder one another. As a result, the staff deemed it necessary to have routine check ups and made a very thorough background search for every person enrolling.
The problem right now however wasn't just one IS...it was five. Problem was only 4 were in an active state and able to be scanned...Each one was linked to a large computer on the other side of the room. The fifth unit wasn't procurable for reasons yet unknown.
Sitting on one of the terminals was a young woman with green hair and eyes, thin rimmed glasses on her and clothes a bit too big for her, making her look even younger then normal.
Her fingers were dancing as if playing a piano, her eyes fully focused on the screen, shifting back and forth and reading bits of data and code as they flowed.
Not for the first time in these last 4 days.
however, she gave up and lowered her head in resignation before looking back at the screen which had two words written in large and bold letters.
ACCESS DENIED
"Still no good, Maya?"
The now named Maya looked over her shoulder, finding a young woman dressed in a black suit standing behind her. There was a sharp and elegant beauty to her compared to Maya's softer features, about 25 years old with black hair tied back in a ponytail. The woman's name was Chifuyu Orimura, one of the teachers here at the academy and perhaps the more famous here. Understandable given her credentials a former Japanese representative and a Mondo Grosso champion to boot.
Saying that she had talent, that she was skilled was like saying the sky is blue. More then a few had taken to calling her the goddess of IS incarnate.
Of course, no one had the courage to say that to her face. She hated that title with a passion.
"There's nothing i can do." Maya informed her with a pout before she schooled herself and looked back. "I used every single trick in the book but I'm constantly kicked out of each and every one. I've never seen a system as complex or as heavily encrypted as these before. Whoever made it must've been a genius" She admitted with a bit of envy. She was proud of her skills.
"That's quite the praise coming from you" Chifuyu remarked with a raised eyebrow as she stared at the odd and colorful units in the room.
A thin and nimble looking one colored in dark blue and aquamarine, made into a camo pattern. Its head was slightly flat and sleek it only had an odd rifle of sorts and a wrist mounted device. It was built for speed and quick hit and run tactics.
Next was a red, black and grey camo patterned one. This one had a helmet looking like a bunny of sorts, and a gun barrel sticking out of its torso, a feature she had no idea what to make off. It was also a bit bigger and heavier then the first one.
Aside from what she identified as a weird machine gun it had a large hand cannon with a large trigger guard and a larger then normal caliber, a rocket launcher on its right shoulder and an unidentified device on the left back. A jack of all trades? mid to long range sustained combat then.
The third one was an all black Behemoth with a few yellow spots here and there and a head with a single eye, no mouth or other features. A heavyweight with the firepower to boot: A large bazooka, the same hand Cannon on its left arm, some sort of folding machine gun on its right back, a grenade launcher of some sort and what looked like missile launchers hanging from its shoulders. This was an artillery unit or a heavy ordnance bombardment with enough armor to take whatever punishment its enemies could throw at it and send it back twofold.
The fourth and next to last unit was completely bland by comparison. A middleweight similar to the bunny headed one because she had no name to call it, it was a plain gunmetal grey color and a boxy look to it.
A helmet similar to the giant next to it but with a narrower shape and a larger eye. It held a machine gun, a wrist mounted device that looked older and cheaper then its lighter friend and what looked like dual missile launchers on its back with triple barreled shoulder extensions. likely extra firepower.
The fact that all 4 and the mystery 5th unit belonged to the same person? Was the emblem she saw on each of their left shoulders: A hollow hexagonal pattern and in front of it were 2 purple flames on each side and on the center 2 dragons, 1 red and one blue rising from the bottom and intertwining together. The question was how? How were he able to pilot more then one. Personal IS units tended to 'Bond' and change to fit with their user specifications.
They needed to be formatted to their users and any attempts made to bind a second one resulted in too much mental strain. So how was he able to do more then one let alone five?
"What about all the equipment? You analyzed this yet?" She asked, curious to see where they came from. After all she was there when they and that fifth unit crashed with their mystery guest in one of the Arena's.
Flashback...
Chifuyu was overseeing maintenance done in the arena from the observation box, some faulty equipment and a hole that needed to be plugged.
It all went quiet until she looked up and saw 5 fireballs coming down.
She opened the microphone "Something's dropping quick get your butts out of there" she shouted and they all quickly looked up before scrambling to find cover.
The first one to crash was a black and white camo patterned mech suit that bounced of the ground and slammed into the wall before slumping in its back in the ground.
And a moment later followed four more crashes although they simply made small craters in their landing zone. Chifuyu rushed out of the box and down the hallway before getting onto the arena with the other 8 of the staff.
"Chifuyu what are we gonna do?" One of them, a red haired girl asked. She like the others was scared out of her mind, so she looked to their senior and more experienced member here.
They weren't IS units...they were far too big for that. 8 to 9 meters.
That changed when a high pitches sound started coming from all the units and they all started shrinking...making everyone halt for a few seconds until the whining noise died down.
"Approach them slowly, we don't know what we're dealing with." They didn't until a hissing sound was heard from the black and white IS and both its helmet and torso opened up in two, revealing it's pilot.
Gasps of shock were heard and Chifuyu herself would admit that she never saw this coming. The surprise didn't come from the pilot being knocked unconscious, that was easy to comprehend after that landing.
No the honors went to the fact that the pilot of this IS was a male, a boy... something that was impossible really. She knew her brother had a reaction and was able to pilot, hence why he was enrolled here and would be coming to the Academy in 3 months to start his first semester.
1 male able to pilot was somewhat believable...two was outright impossible. Their surprise became much more pronounced when the other 4 opened up the same way and were empty. Male pilots was one impossibility, unmanned IS units was outright nonsense.
They managed to get him out and the unit glowed for a second before going into its standby form, becoming a thick metal wristband that wrapped itself on the boy's right hand.
Speaking of the boy... his injuries were quite something to talk about.
Beneath the tattered, lightly armored suit and damaged helmet, that was the exact opposite of what they wore she saw an extensive amount of lacerations, bruises and what looked like scorch burns.
Taking off his helmet there was a deep gash starting from above his right brow that extended downwards past the bridge of his nose and ended slightly below his left eye.
The suit itself, along with his hair were soaked in blood.
"Is he even human...look at his arm" Someone said and Chifuyu turned her eyes to look at the kid, specifically his left arm. Part of the skin had been missing revealing a cybernetic limb.
Androids were a concept heavily talked about but never implemented, cybernetics on the other hand were common. After all being able to walk again or being able to use both hands was by many a godsend.
Chifuyu mulled over it for a moment "Take him to the infirmary. The rest of us will get these to maintenance bay." she barked orders to bring the equipment to move these.
End of Flashback
"I have and...it's" Maya took off the glasses and rubbed her eyes to lessen the irritation gathered during the hours "It's not like anything I've seen before. The components are too different from standard IS...you said they shrunk down and aren't IS units?" she asked the homeroom teacher. There so many pieces of the puzzle they were missing.
"No, they were far too big initially. When they crashed down and we got there they started to get smaller. At least enough to be of similar size to an IS." she remarked, still reeling from the event.
"I see. That explain why the parts and manufacturing mark aren't listed anywhere." She put the marks on the screen. One looked like a red triangle with the words 'Crest Industries' next to it.
The other was a blue and white diamond shaped logo with a stylized M in it and next to it, 'Mirage, high technology at all fields' was written. "No records of any kind are found on these two companies in any database."
Chifuyu frowned. That was impossible, to make parts and weapons for an IS and not exist is not something you can do easily without the whole world not knowing anything about it. There were too many variables that didn't allow for such oversight.
Manufacturing a fully functional IS that looks like it could give Tabane's work a run for it's money was also a fever dream. Not anymore though... "What about the core?"
Instead of answering with words, Maya turned back to the computer and pressed a few keys, causing the monitor to light up. She revealed the inner workings of these units. And once again they were nothing like the regular variety.
Normally the core was housed within a frame, hooked with wires that routed energy emitted by the core to the rest of the IS. Here however there was no frame, the core was left exposed and attached to circuitry and there was no glow at all. There were 2 large parts however connected to either side of it in every unit.
They were somewhat different in shape but she managed to identify an extra energy generator, likely used as back up in case the core failed and the bigger surprise: a radiator for heat management. "This is the weird part, i can understand installing generators for emergency but why the radiator? It's not like IS units heat up." Maya observed and Chifuyu was of a similar mind.
The older Orimura sibling had a theory "Maya look at them. They're fully and heavily armored even at the joints, a bit more then an IS. Even that one" she pointed at the smaller of the 4 and probably 5th as well "Maybe during the fight there's build up and he's using them to keep cool?" Maya thought it plausible, given the fact that they knew next to nothing about the. units or the pilot.
"Either way its outputting incredible amounts of energy. I could equate it to a small nuclear reactor if i had to make a comparison." Maya said, giving way to further shock "And none of them are any of the 467 cores created by Tabane Shinonono"
Chifuyu for her part just glared at the images, and then back to the machines each was attached to. She rubbed her temples to soothe the headache she knew was coming.
This day was nothing but work and trouble. Bad enough that government official, both local and foreign were going nuts, about not just one but five IS of unknown origin, outside the official roster and piloted by a male to boot.
And then it was the pilot himself. Medical scans performed these past few days revealed a number of things: His entire left arm, up to the shoulder looked like military grade cybernetic prosthesis. A larger and somewhat lower positioned rib cage with a number of implants and enhanced bone structure, multiple cranial augments and a number of small circular slots along his arms and legs with one being at the back of his neck. The ones on his upper right arm also functioned for IV drips so they had him hooked.
A pair of extra oxygen pumps and a faster rate of blood flow. Whoever did this wanted the kid to be able to fight with utter precision and until his last breath. A fact that kind of made her sad when she thought about what that meant.
He was still unconscious and the nurse predicted he would be for a bit longer. That was a bridge she did not want to cross.
"By the way Chifuyu..." Maya looked at her worriedly "about the boy..."
"Kid's in the Infirmary." She answered, folding her arms " He's still out of it. We don't know how long. He's got multiple augmentations and medical hasn't yet find what kind of damage was done" She sighed.
Chifuyu was worried as well. Bad enough her idiot of a brother reacted to an IS and is able to pilot it, now they have a whole other can of worms in their hands with this one.
"I got some more paperwork to take care off" she told Maya "Let me know if you find anything else" and started to leave when Yamada stopped her.
"There is actually...its about their security measures" Maya informed "Even if i got past the encryption, there's still an ID lock and a bio-metrics scanner, both probably coded to him" That was a surprise...
"Alright I'll be sure to include that in the report. Thanks Maya" she told her younger with a smile and left. Chifuyu would be lying if she said this wasn't interesting but she was considering the risks surrounding this whole thing. Not to mention the ramifications of what this means.
"What a year this will be..." Chifuyu muttered as she walked towards her office.
In the Infirmary, lying in a bed hooked to an IV and a plethora of scanners was the instigator of all the current commotion. Light grey hair and skin that was a step from being considered albino...
Medical staff fussed over him, making sure heart rate was normal even though it beat a bit faster and a bit louder then normal but they chucked it up to one of the implants attached to it.
They had no idea who this was but they knew he was the pilot of one of these units judging by the metal wristband lying in the table next to him.
They were not gonna be ready for the change he would bring when he woke up...
A/N: And that's it for now ladies and gents. Second chapter is up and ready. to be able to write this i had to fire up my old psp and my copy of ACSL but so far it's worth it.
Let it be known that this is easier to write then Middle Earth's very own Ripper ( WHICH I HAVE NOT ABANDONED BY THE WAY).
Anyway...i'm trying not to make him a godlike character...he will be challenged, he will go through a hardship or two. But as a pilot and a fighter I'd say only Chifuyu, Maya and maybe Tatenashi can keep up with him. After all what are a bunch of boarding school kids compared to an augmented, fully trained mercenary with extensive combat experience and a no compromise mindset?
Anyway for those wandering about the enhancements, some i took from Deus ex Human revolution and an inspiration from
Blackout42's Obligation to keep. which is an Armored Core/ Doki Doki Literature club crossover (Don't ask me bow but the man made it work).
His writing is miles better then mind so if you got the time give his a go. Keep in mind its quite a bit gritty with the details and he goes excruciatingly deep in some parts.
As for this? Lets just see how it goes. Next chapter ill make a profile for each of the five AC-turned-IS units. So those who know can have a better image of these mechs.
For now this is it. See ya later.