"Raven…can you hear me? Please, you have to wake up."
Damaged red optics of the Armored Core flare to life as C4-621, the independent mercenary and the latest to hold the call sign of 'Raven', staggered to functionality as combat mode was initiated. Immediately he was greeted with the sight of a set of jaws gnawing on his optics as his radar lit up with hostiles marked in red.
Unknown creatures he had never seen before on Rubicon, quadrupedal with black fur and white carapaces, were ravaging his Armored Core's black metal plates, swarming him like ants. While the damage they were doing was currently limited to tearing out non-essential wiring and plating with their claws and teeth, it wouldn't be long before they stumbled upon something critical.
His first reaction was to bring his VP-66LH to bear, pointing his laser handgun at the hostile directly in front of him and opening fire with bright blue laser beams piercing through the target with surprising ease just as he activated his thrusters to launch himself into the air as he spun, trying to shake off as many of the hostiles as he could. As he grabs one of the creatures clawing at his AC's neck with his left hand, before throwing it back to the ground.
"I…have no idea what these are. They were never seen before on Rubicon, or match anything on our database." Ayre says in confusion, "While I doubt they are a match for you, I recommend caution."
His AC's head brings down its combat visor in acknowledgement as his shoulder attachment, a BML-G1/P07VTC-12, locks onto his targets below before firing a cluster of twelve missiles vertically before raining down on his tightly clustered enemies below.
With a majority of his targets eliminated or scattered from the rain of death, he falls back down to recharge his EN supply as he charges up the Moonlight, an Institute-crafted Light Wave Blade, but just as he does so the weapon sparks with blue energy before warning emblems were plastered over his screen indicating severe damage all over his AC.
Gifts from his battle with Iguanzu, he realizes with frustration, remembering the giant AC grabbing the Moonlight midswing and crushing it within his fist.
"Raven, we did not have any chance to repair your AC from the battle with ALLMIND and Iguazu." Ayre warns, "Your AP's at less than 30%, the generator is leaking, your Stun Needle is non-functional as well, our ammunition for your remaining armaments are all below 30%, and we have no spare repair kits. I recommend disengaging quick."
Raven sends an acknowledgement to her warnings as he charges his foes anyway, blasting them with his laser handgun. These were not even the size of MTs and likely without any similar armor, manageable even in his current state, and he would rather not be followed.
His lasers burn any creature he strikes to a crisp with single shots as he stomps on them with his reverse-jointed legs, sweeping and crushing many wolf-like creatures with that single strike, before his radar picks up more targets.
"Airborne enemies, Raven. Watch out." Ayre warns as he looks up to find bird-like hostiles approaching. In all his career he had learnt to never ask, and just shoot back if anyone shoots at him, but just the sight of these hostile and possibly organic creatures attacking his AC nearly has him pause to wonder what was going on.
His professionalism takes over as he continues to eliminate the hostiles, launching himself into the air before activating his assault boosters to get closer to the targets. Too slow to react, the bird creatures were smashed by the sheer mass of his AC as he holsters the laser handgun to his AC's hip, using the now free arm to grab another of the bird creatures and break its neck with a single twist and using the corpse as an improvised weapon by throwing it to another one of its flock, knocking it out of the air before bringing his AC's leg up and swinging it down on the last one, crushing its skull and sending it falling to the earth just as he deactivates his thrusters to fall back to the ground.
"...Detecting no more of these hostile creatures in the area, and minimal damage to AC. Well done, Raven." Ayre applauds, "But the question remains…where are we?"
Raven considers this as he tries remembering what happened after their climatic fight with ALLMIND, or rather Iguazu…
"I always envied you…" G5 Iguazu, or what was left of his mind that piloted the gigantic AI-driven AC, says almost solemnly as he dashes at Raven one last time with his green laser blade as the AC fails catastrophically. Despite how advanced it was, Raven knew a doomed AC when he saw one and didn't even raise a weapon before the arm wielding the green laser blade imploded, as did the rest of the AC, "...The freelancer who had it all."
Raven and Ayre watch in silence as the advanced AC explodes in a flash of blue and white, with only a shattered wreck remaining, floating in space with only a single leg, torso and head left. A fitting fate given what he did to Walter…
The surgery that augmented him to what he now was had frozen his facial muscles making it very difficult to express himself. But despite that he almost manages a scowl behind his bandage-wrapped face.
What was there to envy? Here he now stood, on top of the corpses he had slain for the vain hope of getting enough money for the surgery to return him to normal, and the corpses of those he called comrades that he had to betray…
All for the sake of this Coral Release…Would this be it? A chance at peace? A chance of Coral and Humanity co-existing? A chance for the apocalypse the Institute and OVERSEER cynically predicted to be averted without the sacrifice of millions, maybe billions? Who knows? What other choice did he have but to roll the dice?
Ayre senses his bitterness and he feels her look away in shame, or at least whatever the equivalent of a C-pulse wave mutation like her could do. Through their bond, he could feel her own regret at how things turned out, with the deaths of Walter, Carla, "Chatty" and possibly Rusty weighing on them both. All of them were comrades by the barest definition, but comrades nonetheless.
He reaches out to her mentally. It was the closest they could get to comforting each other physically. He had made this choice out of his own free will, he reminds. The burden was not all on her. He knew what he was doing when he made his choices, and now he must bear the burden of doing so.
Compared to the other choices, burning the Coral and igniting a second Fire of Ibis, or perpetuating the endless Coral War with the RLF against the corporations until they could discover another way for humans and Coral to live in peace, this was the only choice that could lead to true coexistence between their races while averting another Fire. By dispersing the Coral through every human in the universe, a Fire will never again threaten the planet, the system, or even the universe as the OVERSEERS feared. But time will only tell what road this choice leads them to.
"O-our plan." Both of them glance towards the wreck of the advanced AC as ALLMIND speaks through it, "Humanity…Creation's potential…"
"We have the trigger. And we'll pull it ourselves." Ayre speaks for the two of them as always, speaking with conviction in her tone.
He agrees, better for them to pull the trigger than ALLMIND, enslaving both Humanity and Coral under its rule. At least this way, when Contact is made with every human in the universe, they still retain their ability to choose. All the free will, with all the uncertainties that come with it.
There was a saying, something he remembered when he read about Rubicon during one of his downtime between missions. Named after a river on Earth, humanity's cradle, associated with a phrase spoken by a general who uttered upon crossing it, 'Alea Iacta Est'. The die is cast. Passing the point of no return, as Ayre had explained to him.
Fitting for where they are now, they stared at the collapsing Coral pump, as red energy began leaking out before the whole megastructure implodes on itself, in its place a singularity.
"It's beginning…Coral Release…" Ayre realizes as the two stare into the singularity as it explodes with red energy before drawing Coral into it.
"Isn't it…beautiful," she asks and he agrees, staring into the singularity as Coral washed over them while being pulled into it.
Then everything went black after the singularity pulled them in. He tries searching through his AC's records for any footage that occurred during his stage of unconsciousness but finds the data corrupted.
"Raven…I have no memory of whatever happened before we awoke as well." Ayre realizes, "Wherever we are, it is evident we are no longer on Rubicon."
Raven agrees as he activates his scanners to get a clearer look at their surroundings. It was a forest for many miles as far as his scanners could tell, but he could identify one thing. Radio waves, a primitive form of communication but communication nonetheless.
"There may be some human presence here." Ayre realizes before sounding shocked, "Communications are down, but I think if we find the source we may find a way to repair your AC."
Raven nods, it sounds like it was their best shot at getting to safety, and tries to move his AC towards a marker Ayre has set but a few steps was all it took before his breathing started getting erratic and his AC's EN supply began plummeting.
"All that movement during your battle must have worsened the interior damage, and you're exhausted after fighting for so long. If you continue you risk running out of power for life support." Ayre warns as Raven ignores that and continues trying to force his AC to move. He has to get them to safety, he has to get her to safety. His last friend…at the very least he must do this…after everything…
However, when his AC was too damaged to respond to his commands, he was forced to relent, giving control to Ayre.
"I am powering down your AC and diverting every remaining speck of power to life support and broadcasting an SOS." she informs as Raven feels his eyelids become too heavy to keep up as the adrenaline and combat stims begin wearing off, "Raven…rest now. Do it for me, please."
With reluctance he does so, letting sleep take over and close his eyes.
"What do you have to show me?" Jacques Schnee asks the facility's head researcher as he follows him down the halls towards an observation room they used for monitoring their experimental robots during live fire testing.
"It's…it's hard to explain without sounding crazy sir." the head researcher says as he guides him to the tinted windows of the observation room, "We found it when our security team was deployed to investigate an energy surge that coincided with the attraction of a small Grimm horde just outside our facility's perimeter."
"Was something intentionally drawing Grimm to us?" Jacques asks concerned about the possibility one of their secret research facility had its location leaked but the head researcher shook his head.
"No, no. We think it may be accidental from when it arrived," he explains as Jacques raises a brow.
"It?" he asks as the head researcher gestures to one of his assistants who taps a Scroll, the window becomes see-through and his eyes widen at the sight of a heavily damaged robot, four times the size of the standard AK-130.
"...What am I looking at?" he asks as he leans into the window to get a better look at the derelict,
"From our best guesses it's some kind of…armored suit." the head researcher explains as he shows Jacques a Scroll with data in it, "We're picking up life signs from inside but we assume it must be powered down due to excessive damage taken."
"Taken from the Grimm?"
"They appear to be dealt with massive amounts of energy judging by how part of it is melted to slag, with its armor scorched and warped as well." the head researcher highlights its wounds on the Scroll, "We're not sure what caused the damage, but judging from our analysis of the armor, it's far much more than anything we currently have. It would have taken an impractical amount of Fire Dust to reach temperatures we predicted."
"...What are we talking about here?" Jacques asks as he goes over the mind-boggling data, "One of our competitors? A Merlot Industries prototype? Secret Atlesian military project?"
"...I don't think it came from anywhere on Remnant, sir." the head researcher says, looking like he could barely believe his own words, "It had markings we don't recognise, in a language not found anywhere on Remnant. It just…appeared out of nowhere."
Jacques takes this in as he flips through page after page of the report the head researcher wrote up. Advanced materials stronger than what they have, possessing energy weapons that rival an energy cannon found on Atlas airships, an advanced energy source and capacitors, data conduits and much more. The potential if they could replicate any of this…
A smile grows on his face as he imagines the Schnee Dust Company with all the technology, manufacturing it and selling it to the highest bidder, having the entire Atlas military dependent once they get a taste of the possibilities they can provide for them, maybe even the other Kingdoms.
"...I think we're about to become very, very rich." Jacques says as he glances down at the figurative and literal treasure trove beneath him, "Very rich indeed."