Armored Core: Liberty's Calling

[DreadnoughtDT]

Crow energized all of his weapons and readied them. "I liked you better when we were friends, Nine-ball. And besides, when those techno-organic freaks kill all of us, who do you think they'll go after? Big, fat, lovable Mr. Cubey over there. And I doubt that thing, no matter how much armor it has and how many NEXT's are on board, can destroy nearly one million (and counting) techno-organic AC's and AF's. I wanted to settle this peacefully, but you leave me no choice." He closed the comm channel and looked at his monitor. "So, Storm, what's the best course of action?"

Analysis: The enemy NEXT is highly maneuverable and is heavily armored against ballistics and energy weapons. It is also anti-ECM. However if the armor were to be breached it would be extremely vulnerable. Recommend attacking from behind, specifically the boosters, where the armor is weakest.

"Gotcha. What are our odds of winning this fight with all three of us against the one of him?"

Statistic: Twenty percent. Thirty if you three happen to get lucky.

Crow sighed and forwarded the message to both Anubis and Cerberus, in the meantime establishing an encrypted comm with both of them.

"This doesn't bode well, guys."

 

[Angelo Credo]

"Yeah I figured you'd come to the same conclusion, I've had enough of this...Anubis, let's go, die you worm!"

Anubis' right hand flicked out, the vibro-spear extending in its' grip, the boosters lit up, propelling Anubis towards Nine-Ball, at the last minute the AC vanished, appearing behind Nine-Ball, Angelus gripped control of the Core's right arm, forcing the spear down and connecting with the NEXT's boosters.

"Pathetic! You're not even trying!"

"You're right, I'm not." Nine-Ball spoke across the comms, the NEXT recovered swiftly from the hit, arming its' CANOPUS cannon.

Warning: "High energy spike detected, suggest activation or Zero Shift to evade the att-"
Angelus cut off the AI and yelled.

"Don't talk about it! For Christ sake do it!" Angelus punched down on the command console, Anubis hurtled towards Nine-Ball whilst the Zero Shift drive charged, all for nought, Nine-Ball's CANOPUS cannon exploded into life, jets of energy propelled themselves from the NEXT's right arm, connecting at full force with Anubis' torso.

"And you were calling me pathetic? Can't even dodge a single attack, no grace, no finesse."

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

Crow couldn't simply sit back and watch. He had to do something. "You devil! I was just starting to like that guy!" He switched both of Rain Storm's gatling guns into power-conservation mode, revealing the AC's hands. He took hold of Nine-ball's head and slammed him several times against the side of the cube, then he made sure to crush his CANOPUS cannon... Or, he tried anyway. Nine-ball moved away from the attack with little to no effort, scratched and missing a few spikes but otherwise undamaged.

You little twerp. When I first met you I had high hopes, but this is pathetic.

Nine-ball armed his CANOPUS cannon and fired, knocking Rain Storm's damaged arm off.

You're little more than a nuisance. Where's the spark, the fire I saw back when you were a recruit?

"You want spark, you got it!" Rain Storm activated all weapons and fired until they were completely dry, then he dashed through the dust cloud and began to beat Nine-ball with his remaining arm. "You do NOT mess with me! Not on a day like this!"

 

[BlueDevil]

Cerberus darted forward after Nine Ball, releasing his laser blade. The blade zipped through the air, and slid across the left shoulder of Nine Ball, scratching the paint by hardly anything. Harper punched in a command, and Cerberus' grenade launcher once more fired, directly hitting the left side of Nine Ball's waist. Nine Ball diverted his attention from Anubis to Cerberus, and quickly fired a volley of shots from his rifle. It was a direct hit to the shoulder joint of Cerberus' right arm. "****!" Harper yelled out as the arm not only became inactive, but was completely separated from the rest of the AC. Harper switched to Cerberus' High Act missile pack, and fired a short wave of six missiles at Nine Ball. The missiles exploded with little effect on the NEXT.

"You are disappointing." The cold voice spoke to Harper.

 

[Angelo Credo]

"Damnit...I should have seen that one coming...IDIOT, you moron...Anubis, status report."

Analysis: Systems critical, shields out, armour holding at 50%, missile packs destroyed, boosters damaged, Zero Shift drive still relatively intact, recommended course of action: Utilise Orbital Cannons to launch drones that will serve as a distraction, tactical retreat, chances of victory are now at 1%, you will not survive with the current course of action.

"Private comms, open a channel."

Connection established.

"I'm just barely alive here, I can't take another hit, let alone another shot from that son of a bitch's cannon, I've lost most of my systems, my rifle is inoperable, boosters are damaged, missile packs are out, shields gone and my armour is at 50%, my AI tells me our chances just dropped to 1%, recommends that I launch my Orbital Cannons to act as a distraction while we get the hell out of here...We can't beat him."

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

Crow couldn't believe that Nine-ball was totally ignoring the AC that was whacking him with all it's might, but that was a good thing. With one final shove, he managed to make the barrel of his gatling gun go through Nine-ball's overbooster and completely destroy it. "I bet you noticed THAT, you prick!"

Advisory: Enemy is powering up weapon systems. Please evade.

That was half-assed, kid. I've seen you do better.

"Damn you, Nine-ball. What happened to the old days?"

That's just it. They happened, past tense. They're over now, so suck it up and deal. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have two much more important targets to destroy.

Then Crow got Angelus' message. "You have a point. I want to beat this guy's ass to oblivion, but I'll hold off on this... For now."

 

[BlueDevil]

As the three of them prepared to retreat, Nine Ball boosted a ways back from them, "You are not leaving without losing something. Let it serve as a warning to never intrude on Tempest affairs." Cerberus began to float away, before Harper realized the Nine Ball's attention was on him yet again. His voice came back on one final time, "Allow me to introduce you to the full power of Tempest's Core technology."

"Warning: Immediate evasion recommended. Energy signature beyond even the Tempest AF originating in Nine Ball." Cerberus spoke calmly to Harper.

"What?" Was the last thing Harper managed to say before something began to glimmer in front of Nine Ball. It was as if the AC was taking the surrounding energy from his shielding and other things around him, and forming into some force of energy.

"Energy signatures forming into a recognizable format. This new force being created is comparable to a highly concentrated and deadly form of Assault Armor. Evade. Repeat, Eva-" Cerberus was cut short as the blast formed by Nine Ball's Assault Armor completely obliterated him. As the smoke cleared, there was nothing more that a haze of cinders where Cerberus and Harper once were.

 

[Angelo Credo]

Angelus stared in amazement at what he just witnessed, Nine-Ball's next just created an incredibly concentrated form of Assault Armour from absolutely nothing, and taking out an AC like Cerberus in the process...

"What...What the...You killed him? So that's it is it? You prey on those weaker than you to show your strength? You think that makes you powerful? You think that makes you a skilled pilot? You don't deserve respect, you deserve nothing and no matter how long it takes, I assure you, I'll turn you into dust!"

Anubis leapt up, vibro-spear in hand and shifted behind Nine-Ball, the spear connected with the NEXT's head, crumpling it under the overwhelming force.

"Anubis, divert all available power into the spear, I don't care about the warning, just do it."

Acknowledged.

Angelus' AC blistered into action, appearing underneath Nine-Ball before he even had a chance to recover, the force of the spear swing crumpled the NEXT's CANOPUS cannon and sent it hurtling towards the Fortress.

"Is the rifle usable yet?"

50% efficiency, enough for one EMP burst shot.

"Do it."

Anubis pulled out the damaged and charred rifle, crosshairs trained on Nine-Ball, red power lines flowed from the AC into the rifle, its core turned a dark hue of red.

"Fire."

Countless jetstreams of red plasma erupted from the rifle, all homed in on one target, in a glorious explosion, every shot connected, whilst not physically damaging the NEXT, the energy absorbed by the weapon's EMP shot was more than enough to put it out of commission for long enough to escape.

"Crow, I've bought just enough time for us to get out of here, but I'm completely screwed, if you want to stay and fight, then that's fine by me, but if we're getting out of here, I need to follow your wake, otherwise Anubis isn't going anywhere."

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

Crow's jaw dropped. Where Cerberus had stood was now nothing but cinders and a few spare parts. He vainly tried to open a comm channel to Cerberus, with no success. "Dammit, Harper! You can't die now! We just started to get to know each other! GODAMMIT NINE-BALL!"

Crow, even in it's decrepit state, decided to destroy Nine-ball with just melee attacks.

"You killed him! For no reason! You could've just let us be, but no! You killed him! You killed him! DIE! DIE!" He continued to relentlessly smash Nine-ball, damaging his own AC more than Nine-ball's, but he could've cared less. "I'll make you pay for that! You'll die! I'll be the one to kill you!!!"

There's the spark I remember. Too bad you can't win.

"Shut up! I'm done with you!"

 

[BlueDevil]

Nine Ball chuckled, disabled for several moments due to the blast created by Anubis. Two more hatches in the side of Tempest opened, and two more NEXTs drifted forward, one guarding while the other began to push Nine Ball away from Rain Storm and Anubis. The two new ACs didn't even bother to discuss things over a private channel. The pilot of the middle weight AC pushing Nine Ball spoke, "Well, Anteres...looks like Nine got himself wrapped up in a little too much, eh?"

The other pilot in a pearl-white AC with black highlights spoke up, "Nah. He would've come back online before they put him down. You know that, Evangel."

"Guess so."

 

[Angelo Credo]

Two more contacts appeared on Anubis' wrecked HUD, the same type of NEXT's that Nine-Ball happened to be piloting.

"Oh this is not good, even I can admit when we're done...Anubis, we don't have the energy to Zero Shift do we? But can we pass it on to someone else? I mean...If we were to attach the drive to Crow's AC, could we ride his wake and get dragged along with him if he shifts?"

Answer: Yes, it is possible, providing Rain Storm has the required reserves of energy for the Zero Shift drive to accommodate two people.

"Right, opening a channel with Crow."

Angelus tapped a few commands into Anubis' central control panel.

"Crow, you can see just as well as I can, there are two more of them, we could barely injure one, standing here and fighting three enemies that we know full well will destroy us is nothing short of foolish."

Zero Shift drive ready for transfer.

"Right, here's the plan, Anubis can't move, her boosters are fried and I don't have enough energy to use my Zero Shift drive, but I can pass it over to you and follow in your wake, when you use it, it'll drag me along with it, there's one problem though...It takes approximately ten minutes for your AI to configure the drive's settings to your AC, simply put, you're going to have to keep away from these things for ten minutes, then when it's ready, come back and get me, I'll power down all systems apart from life support so they think I'm dead, it's not ideal, but it's the best plan we have."

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

Crow had let up from his needless barrage and listened quietly. "Okay. I was getting tired of these guys anyway. Give me the drive and power down. I'll distract them. I'm pretty sure I can dodge for ten minutes, even with a half tank of fuel and no ammo." He closed the channel and looked up. "Rain, what's the chances of me surviving this?"

Statistic: Nearly 50%.

"What about Harper surviving?"

Statistic: Sadly, less than 1%.

"Damn."

 

[Angelo Credo]

Angelus took a few deep breaths, he knew the chances of surviving this were low, but he was ready for this eventuality, fear is meaningless to the Angel of Death.

"Anubis, eject the drive and then immediately power down all systems bar life support and rudimentary AI functions, I don't want to be flying entirely blind here..."

Affirmative, interrogative: Are you sure you can trust Crow to come to your assistance? What makes you think he would not just leave you for dead?

"Nothing really, I'm just hoping that a rare shred of faith in humanity hasn't gone misplaced for once, if he pulls through for us, then maybe I could have encountered a person we can actually trust..."

Don't get your hopes up Angel, you remember what happened last time, people died, more than would have ever been necessary.

Angelus sighed, holding his head in his hands, flashbacks ran through his mind, the screams of innocent men, women and children tormented him, all because of misplaced faith in another person, he prayed he wasn't about to make a similar mistake twice.

"I know, I know, but what choice do I have? Ditch the drive and power down, open up comms with Crow."

Affirmative, ditching drive...Drive released, communications port open.

"Crow, I'm hoping I can trust you here, the drive has been released, grab it, then run like hell until your AI has it configured...Please, I never ask anything of people, but come back for me, I don't want to die here just yet."

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

"What makes you think I'd leave you behind? I've already lost one friend, and I'm not losing another." Crow grabbed the drive and immediately dashed away about four or five miles. "Rain, how long is it going to take to reconfigure that Zero Shift drive?"

Approximation: 10 minutes, at the most. However, I could put the AI into overdrive to cut it down to five. This will put a dangerous strain on the reactor, but it will finish the reconfiguration twice as fast.

"I see... Angelus, did you get th- What the hell?!" Crow was cut off as a few missiles brushed past him, along with a few high-powered rifle shots. Crow couldn't recognize the symbols on these two NEXTs. They were probably new recruits, but they both had one hell of an AC.

You think you're so tough, taking Nine-ball out of commission like that?

We'll make sure you regret that. So, you wanna die fast or slow?

"Neither, thank you very much." Crow closed his comm channel to the two NEXTs. "Rain, put it on autopilot and dodge every shot to the best of your abilities, but put a priority on getting as far away from those NEXTs as possible until the Zero Shift finishes reconfiguring. And for god's sake, PLEASE make sure we don't run out of fuel."

Query: Do you really think this will work?

"No. You're supposed to be ready for the worst, remember?"

Statement: I'll try to remember that for next time.

 

[Angelo Credo]

A smile spread across Angelus' face, whether he was resigned to death, or whether it was because his faith might actually pay off was unknown even to him, all he knew was that for the first time, he was praying for the survival of another human being.

"Anubis...You still with me? Come on, talk to me, after all this I could really use someone or something to talk to..."

Nothing, the AI overlay remained blank.

"Come on Anubis, don't leave me stirring in my own mental torture here, I really don't need this right now..."
No change in the overlay.
"Damn it Anubis! I know you're still online, talk to me!"

The screen flickered to life.
My apologies Angel, with only rudimentary functions online I am unable to function at full capacity, splitting my core in its' between keeping life support and other vital systems online, as well as talking to you is incredibly taxing.

Angelus sighed and closed his eyes, slumping back in the chair of Anubis' flight deck, he muttered.

"I'm sorry...I know this is hard for you too Anubis, I didn't expect any of this to happen, I received a message from Crow before he got cut off, I didn't get it all, think you could try and decipher it?"

Confirmation: Affirmative, message was a forwarded response from the AI of Crow's AC, stating that reconfiguration could be completed in five minutes if the core AI system initiates an overdrive capability.

"That's promising...I hope he makes it."

Interrogative: Angel...Are you okay?

"I will be Anubis, I'm just...I'm scared, can you open a private channel with Crow briefly?"

Affirmative, opening channel...And Angel, I think I am scared too.

Angelus' eyes widened at Anubis' remark, could his AI be becoming sentient? A question for another time, Angelus coughed over the comms system.

"Crow...How're you doing out there? I haven't got much air left on the limited life support, tell me that drive is almost configured so we can get out of here."

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

Crow was dodging and weaving his way through bullet clouds when he got Angelus' message. He checked the progress bar that Rain so helpfully displayed on the screen. "It's at 95%. Just ten seconds left. Ah, hell..." One of Rain Storm's shoulder mounted spray missile launchers was torn loose by a stray shot. "Those things are expensive! And watch the paint too!"

Quit whining about your damn paint job and fight like a man!

Statement: The Zero Shift program is finished configuring. Moving to Anubis' position. ETA is twenty seconds.

"Angelus, hang on. I'm coming your way." Crow grabbed Anubis and hooked it onto Rain Storm's back. "Tell me where to go and I'll fire this thing."

 

[Angelo Credo]

"Great, I don't care where, just anywhere that isn't here, or near here!"

Angelus punched the command console, the flight deck lit up and everything sprung to life.

"Anubis, reactivate all systems, Crow is ready and we're getting the hell out of here."
Affirmative, all undamaged systems are online, awaiting your command.
"Hit the Orbital Cannons, give Crow a distraction to give him enough time to get over here and get us out."
Affirmative, Orbital Cannons launched.

Two drones sprung up from Anubis' rear shoulder extensions and hurtled towards the two NEXTs in an attempt to draw their fire away from Crow.

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

Zero Shift system is fully charged. Please input destination.

"Back to Mars' surface, the far side of the planet! NOW!"

Zero Shift system activated. Hold onto something. Crow could've sworn he'd heard a small giggle after that, but he had much more important matters to attend to, like getting the hell out of here! Rain Storm overboosted and then disappeared for a moment, reappearing on the far side of Mars. "Angelus, I'm going to detach you. Can you walk?"

 

[Angelo Credo]

Angelus looked around, glancing over the barren wasteland of Mars' surface, for the first time he was glad to be here.

"I'm not sure what condition Anubis' leg joints are in after that barrage, I can try but don't count on it."

Anubis dropped to the floor, the leg joints immediately gave out under the immense weight of the AC, it collapsed to the floor, just managing to prop itself up with a semi-functioning right arm.

"Looks like I took a hell of a beating, might need to drop by the factory where Anubis was built and get her fixed up...The engineers are not going to like this, you know where the Bernard and Felix special weapons headquarters is located?"

 

[DreadnoughtDT]

"Bernard and Felix? So they're the ones who made Anubis, eh? Any chance of Anubis being mass-produced? We could use tough mechs like yours. Yeah, I know where they are. They're back on Earth, right?" Crow held out his AC's remaining hand welcomingly for Anubis to grab. "C'mon. I'm not leaving you behind. Isn't that what friends are for?"