Armored Core: New Rising

[BlueDevil]

~Fic~

PROLOGUE

"So, Ricard, shall we have a toast to our success over the newly claimed Taityrus system?" Belmond stood at his ship's window, staring out into the vast ocean of outer space, twirling his nimble, aged finger through his grayed beard. That thick, posh accent of his was the most notable thing, though, as it always was.

Ricard stood with a smug look on his face, taking note of the Captain's casual dress. The man always celebrated over the simplest of things. "I'd hardly say it was a success worthy of one of your fine drinks, Captain. They practically surrendered upon seeing our ships in their airspace."

"Be that as it may, it was still an important staging area for us to collect. A necessary piece of controlled space for us to take over. Whether it was difficult or not shouldn't hinder our drinking. Come, let me pour you a glass." The man turned, his cold, blue eyes staring straight into Ricard's as he smiled, his finger still fidgeting in his beard.

Ricard had to give in. There was never a point in trying to fend off the Captain when he offered a drink. You either accepted his hospitality all of the time or you were never treated again. Ricard did like the occasional celebratory drink with Belmond. It was nice to get away from the hassles of politics and military life and simply relax for a while. "Sure thing, Captain. What'll it be?"

Opening a small cabinet under his desk's top, Belmond pulled out an aged bottle of Scotch, half gone, spent on other special occasions from the looks of things, and poured it into a small glass from one of the other cabinets. Ricard walked over and took the glass while Belmond poured another of his own.

"So, what's the news for me? Have you heard anything from your operatives?" Belmond asked, his facial expression changing to a more serious one as his eyes squinted. Apparently this wasn't just any special occasion.

"My third team has recently been reporting a lot of things from behind enemy lines. The most notable has been the possible production of WMDs at one of the Eipheen Corporation testing facilities in the Kexis system. They seem to be in direct arms deals with the Kexis military." Ricard took a sip of his Scotch. His throat tickled.

"Eipheen and Kexis? To be expected. That bastard corporation fell in the wrong direction after GESInc. was taken care of." Belmond sighed. "This was one of the signs, you know?"

"One of the signs?"

"The signs that Kexis is preparing for war. Their recent boost in military activity was something to take note of, but they have been stepping deep into areas we didn't expect them to go. Did you know that they conscripted the entire male population between the ages of fiteen and forty on one of their planets. Eh, I don't remember which, I believe Kexis IV, but still. An entire healthy population of men conscripted. What do they plan to do with all of that power? I certainly don't know, but we all have our ideas. That was one of the signs too."

"How many of our allies are under direct threat?"

"It's not our allies we should be worried about." Belmond straightened his stance, staring at Ricard with a newly developed smile, this one a bit frightening, "As of now, we are the farthest into enemy territory, and we are the most recognizable threat, even though our intentions aren't to engage Kexis. We even have several temporary treaties in place with them."

"But recent fleet movements would suggest otherwise..." Ricard replied.

"Yes, and the people of the Kexis system have always been a tad jumpy. We can expect anything they wish to do to be directed at us."

"It doesn't help that we just took over one of their biggest allies."

"Taityrus was a failing ally to Kexis. It's doubtful that they'd care about such a thing." Belmond's smile grew bigger, "After all, who would want an ally that would give up without firing a single shot?"

"Not me, Captain." Ricard shook his head, pursing his lips.

There was a long silence before Belmond looked back out into outer space, now glancing at the dozens of other battlecruisers and carriers drifting with them, "So, tell me about this new Raven you've hired."

 

[BlueDevil]

CHAPTER 1

Planet Taityrus Beta
Three weeks earlier, April 16th, 2452
Final hours of takeover

"Hey, Scott, don't you ever get sick of that sweat smell, man?" Howard knew how to talk at the most unnecessary of times. It was hot. Humid. Everyone was sweating. Even with the bare minimum of necessary gear and their sleeves rolled up above their elbows, it was hot. The planet's two moons glowed brightly, reflecting the suns rays in between all of the jungle trees and vegetation.

AR-90 in hand, just like everyone else, Scott squinted through all of the tree trunks and shrubs, before replying to Howard. He looked back at the man behind him, tall and muscular, "Howard...shut up."

That's all it took, and everything was back to silence. Only the sound of the rest of the COFD-A, or Covert Operations Force Detachment Alpha, gently stepping through foliage was present. If their company managed to complete their objective tonight, it would blow a hole right through Taityran defensive airspace and give the fleet a straight shot to their home world, where they would easily take over the capital. But the orbital cannons would have to be shut off from the planet's surface. And there were only a few dozen men on the operation. No air support and reinforcements would be provided due to the AA Guns stationed everywhere, and knowing Eipheen, a handful of MTs would be positioned throughout the jungle. Or worse, an AC.

Scott wished that this wasn't a low profile mission, or else they could've used an AC of their own. It was too late to be wishing for heavy weaponry now though. Feeling a tap on his left shoulder, Scott turned his head slightly. It was Nixon. You couldn't see his face in the night, because it was painted over with camo, but the white of his eyes shined ever so slightly, "Hey, Alpha-Two is in position on the outskirts of the Eipheen base. Once we hit ours and dig in, all we gotta do is hail 'em and wait for 'em to cut the power."

Scott nodded, "Any idea how close we are?"

"Judging by our current speed and our drop off point, I'd say less than a hundred meters." Nixon pointed up to the sky above the trees. A dim, orange glow lit up the area a ways off. "That's probably it over there. We gotta watch out though. The Taityran's have been expecting this for a good long while, I'd like to think, so they've probably got patrols and machine-gun nests set up on the base's perimeter."

"Noted." Scott looked back to his front, pacing his steps with the rest of his men. He only saw a few. He heard a dozen. Everyone began to slow and move more quietly and cautiously once the first few lights began to peak into view through the thick, green leaves of the towering trees. The plan was to find the back entrance, and post up in the outlying area, give Alpha-Two the signal via radio, cause a disruption in the back while they went in through the front, dispatching of the minimal posted resistance there would be until they could find the power and controls to the orbital cannons, and shut the things off. That was the easy part. The hard part would be taking the base and keeping the enemy from reclaiming it.

It was only a few minutes later when the back gate was actually located. A narrow, un-lit road cutting through the jungle ran straight into the gate, and as predicted, flanking either side of the gate were machine-gun nests. Posted on the concrete walkways above the gate were more soldiers, doing their laps around the base's perimeter on the look out for any foes. They didn't see Alpha though. No one ever did.

Scott reached his hand up to his ear-piece, tapping his finger over one of the buttons to speak, "Benny, give Alpha-Two the green light. Tucker, I want you to hit that gate with your grenade launcher in five."

Scott took his hand away from the switch, kneeled down and laid flat on his stomach, taking prone position, just like everyone else would.

Five...

He counted silently in his head, staring at the gate and the two nests.

Four...

An empty, yet pumped up feeling began to twist and form in his gut.

Three...

A blast of air sounded off, like a coolant system coming online. Oh hell...

This sound couldn't have been anything good, and within the remaining two seconds, Scott turned his head to the left, looking up from the ground at a massive black figure. At the tip of the form, a neon blue light appeared, and the whirring of machinery sounded off through the jungle trees. The gate exploded, glorious, bubbling bursts of fire erupting forth. The men in the nests and on the walkway began firing blindly into the jungle. Scott had become so used to the sound of gunfire that the once deafening blasts of explosions and bullets bursting out of their barrels only sounded like childrens fireworks. Alpha began firing back.

Scott never took his eyes off of the light, and that's when the spotlight came on from one of the base towers, shining itself right over the immensely tall form standing next to him. His heart sunk as his chest filled with fear, "CORE! We've got an AC here! Demolitions!"

Scott rolled away, hopping onto his legs to sprint away from the now active mecha. The machine was armed with a rifle and a laser blade. Scott couldn't see its back units due to its height. The giant robot took an offensive stance, aiming the rifle into the trees and began to spray the area with massive slugs. The impact of a single bullet from the rifle into the ground was enough to send some of Scott's men flying. Others who were more unfortunate were caught too close to the shots or directly hit and undeniably killed off.

Scott stared at the carnage for a second before being clipped by one of the machine-gun bullets from a nest. He fell to the ground and took cover by a tree, grasping his shoulder before looking back over to the Armored Core. Three grenade rounds hit the AC, exploding one after the other against its armor. It stopped firing for a moment, and then seemingly unharmed, joined back in with the Eipheen troops in firing at Alpha.

This was long from over.