Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

Chapter 25: Taking the Xylem

Ayre was once again watching over Raven as he slept. She was honestly surprised that they haven't really much been receiving any further requests from ALLMIND. She'd hope that nothing horrible would come due to them rejecting the Release Project so last-minute.

Then again, quite a bit of her luck, Raven's combined, is still too low to prevent bad things from happening. It was great being back in OBSIDIAN WING. Better systems, usual gear. All that good stuff.

Suddenly, she heard the COM system say that Carla was calling. She quickly woke him up, who quickly got to his HUD, still worrying her, not acting groggy, or not as much anyway.

"Let me tell you a story, tourist." said Carla, "After the Fires of Ibis blew the planet up... a secret organization formed, hiding in the ashes. Overseer... The Association of Observers. They monitored the Coral's growth... ready to burn it before the Collapse came."

A graph showed up, revealing a particular point where a limit would be,

"That was their mission." Carla continued, then her voice got heavy almost, "Our mission. Me, Walter... and our fallen friends."

And with that, entire rows of names showed up. This must be what Walter had meant by the word "friends." Thousands of names of those dead came aboard. Walter and Carla were the last ones, or, now Carla herself is probably the last one of them all pretty much by now at this very point.

"RaD was always just a front, a side hustle. It's time for me to get back to my real work," Carla went on, "Let's get down to brass tracks. You've been to Xylem before, right. The floating city created by the Institute? It's hiding a secret, a little something to prepare against the coming Collapse. We need to get to it, and fast. RaD's entire team of hackers is going to be working to take control of Xylem. I want you to deal with Arquebus when they come running to see what we're up to."

Raven hesitated before clicking the button.

"Overseer, the Association of Observers..." said Ayre, sounding scared, "They want to... burn the Coral..."

Raven could imagine her hurt. He still didn't know. Should he side with the Overseers? Or Ayre? What if he... tried both? Burn the Coral but keep Ayre? No... that... that doesn't seem possible. He'd be asking her to stay after basically bringing her kind to near-extinction, leaving her utterly alone.

No.

It's got to be one or the other.

...

OBSIDIAN WING landed near the high tower with a loud thud before it entered Combat Mode.

"Get into position, tourist! It's time!" Carla ordered, "I need you to protect that tower until we've managed to take control.."

The Xylem Control System suddenly boomed, saying something like "Process K." and "Deploying Shield."

Ayre wasn't listening too much however. She was too busy thinking about...well, everything. Even though Raven was here, still with her, she felt... alone.

First, she finds out that Balam and their Redguns, along with Arquebus and the Vespers were fighting over the usage of the Coral, her family for goodness sake, willing to destroy it if anyone not with them gets a hold of it.

They find it exposable once seeing it in the hands of the enemy.

And second, she just so happens to realize that even the natives of Rubicon 3, the Liberation Front, a group she considered her own people, having been an actual Rubiconian herself before the Great Fire, was also fighting over their own use for the Coral, being the ultimate descendants of those who discovered it first.