Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

Chapter 27: Block Drive Takedown

Raven was busy cracking literally every bone in his body as augmented humanly possible. He then felt Ayre perk up at the corners of his consciousness. He then nodded and leaned back.

<<I'm listening.>>

"I'll explain our mission." she started, "Carla's last trick has rendered the Xylem inoperable. There's only one way left to stop it from colliding and igniting the Coral... We have to take the whole thing down."

Raven looked at her with shock. Taking an entire colony down? No AC built can do that. Unless...

"The lower drive block is powered by large skyrmion generations distributed throughout the area." Ayre continued, "If we destroy all the generators and stop the ramjet engine the upper city sector... then we can crash the Xylem into the Alea Ocean without impacting human life."

He then got it. Ayre stopped him however before he could click the button to get this mission started.

"One more thing. I took the liberty of using your name to rally allies to our aid: 'Beyond scorched skies, Raven fights on.'" said Ayre, her voice sounding so hopeful, "No one has shaped Rubicon's destiny as much as you have. Come and see what the name 'Raven' means to them."

<<Let's see.>>

OBSIDIAN WING was then lifted from the ground as Ayre said, "Let's go, Raven." She then mentioned that one of their allies should be arriving already. Raven couldn't wait to meet them.

...

They stood out on the edge of the city. There, they saw an AC coming by. It wasn't one Raven could recognize at the very moment.

It was armed with a EL-PW-00 VIENTO Needle Gun, a Vvc-774LS Laser Slicer, BO-044 HUXLEY Needle Missile Launcher, and a BO-044 HUXLEY Bullet Orbit. Ayre quickly identified it as EL-PH-00 ALBA, codenamed STEEL HAZE ORTUS.

<<Wait, STEEL HAZE? Then that's->>

"Looks like the guest of honor's here." came Rusty's snottish voice, "Hey, buddy. Never thought I'd be rubbing shoulders with the liberator of Rubicon."

Whoa. "Liberator of Rubicon?" Raven honestly never thought he'd be called that. Especially because of how much he did against the Rubicon Liberation Front at first. The two ACs looked down, seeing explosions on the surface of the planet. The war was still raging down there. Then again, of course it was.

"Every Rubiconian who heard your cry rose up to fight." Rusty explained, "Let's show them a future for Rubicon, beyond these scorched skies."

...

"V.IV... Rusty was the first to offer his help." Ayre explained.

It was nice to have someone like Rusty on their side. She admired his courage, even his "snotty attitude."

And she was so surprised when she realized that he was literally a secret spy for the RLF, pretending to be a Vesper. She wondered what it must be like, did people in the RLF not know, in order to keep it top secret? She wondered. Raven and Rusty both assault boosted side by side with each other.

"Never thought the plan would go so wrong... But it's good teaming up with you again." said Rusty, "Couldn't have hoped for a better silver lining.."

Ayre then confirmed one of the targets being one of the skyrmion generators. STEEL HAZE ORTUS blocked the enemies' attacks while OBSIDIAN WING destroyed one of the generators. The entire room began to turn crimson once red lights illuminated the area.