I stayed up that night and attached my new parts to Kong.  The new 
parts seemed to bring out the “kick ass” in my AC.  The KARASAWA and 
STARLIGHT just seemed to flow out of the huge arms as if the parts were made just for 
Kong and no other AC.  The other Ravens wondering through out the Cortex all 
commented on my big green AC.  Most of them couldn’t understand why I 
put a blade on such a large AC but some of the more experienced Ravens knew 
that the strength of Kong’s arms adds extra damage to the blade.  But what 
none of them new was just how strong those arms were.  

    I sat against the foot of my AC and thought about how lucky I was 
to witness that battle and be there to claim that AC for my own.  Then as 
luck would have it, I completed repairs on that AC just in time to go on a 
mission that would grant me the artificial muscle system that has made my super 
heavy AC perform like a super light.  Then I got to meet the girl of my 
dreams and as luck would have it, she seems to be crazy about me as well.  It was 
almost as if I was meant to be more than a mechanic.  It all sounds good but I 
don’t believe in fate, I believe that people are responsible for their own 
lives and if a few breaks are needed to get them going, so be it.  if it was 
fate that I was supposed to be a Raven, I would have been born into a rich 
family.  I found this AC and took it upon myself to break the law and not turn 
it in to the Cortex.  I decided to become more than I was, not some all 
governing force called fate.

    After a few hours of day dreaming I stood up and stretched.  I 
walked to the rec. room and sat at a terminal to look for a mission for tomorrow.  
Trish was going to be on one all day and I needed something to do.  
There were a lot of missions to choose from, the corporation knew that a lot 
of Ravens were eager to try out their new parts after the convention.  The 
system told me that there were over 800 missions requested for tomorrow 
and that nearly half of them were taken.  That means that some Ravens have 
two or three or even more missions in one day.  I decided to just scroll down 
with my eyes closed and pick a mission at random.  I began scrolling and 
closed my eyes.  I put my finger on the screen and stopped scrolling.  I opened 
my eyes and was surprised to see a 200,000 reward for the mission I was 
pointing at.  It was a request from the Global Cortex itself.  I read the e-mail to 
find out what the mission was.  “The Earth government is trying to seize 
control of the Ravens for profit by putting the Cortex out of business.  The 
Cortex has no intention of going down without a fight, we need to teach the 
government that while we will operate under their jurisdiction, we will 
not be bullied and driven out of business.  The Cortex would like you to 
execute an attack on the Earth Government office building in Corella city.  The 
attack will be at night so that only the highest ranking officials will 
be inside the building.  During your attack we will be in contact with the 
Government letting them know that your attack will stop as soon as they 
are ready to discuss their actions against us.  This mission will be 
dangerous as the Government building is heavily guarded by remote MTs and ACs.  If 
you find yourself in over your head you are to pull out and you will be 
paid for the damage you have inflicted.  Good luck Raven.”

    This mission sounded very difficult, one Raven against the remote 
security of an Earth Government office building doesn’t sound like a 
walk in the park.  I decided that the reward was worth the danger and accepted 
the mission.  Besides, I don’t think I would like being a Raven if I had to 
work for the Government.  They have no value for the lives of their 
employees and they don’t pay very well.  If I can help keep the Cortex up and 
running, I may as well do it.  I typed in my ID number and account number.  The 
computer informed me that I was to start the mission as soon as possible so that 
the attack would occur at night.  I figured I could do the mission and the 
Government would call the Cortex and have the mission called off and 
then I could go to bed around 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning and wake up in time 
to see Trish once she got back from her mission.

    I jogged back to the garage, got in my AC, and started it up.  
“Welcome back Kur... New weapons have been attached... scanning... all systems 
functioning within normal parameters.”  I know I didn’t have to wait 
for Kong to stop talking before I got moving, but it has become kind of a habit.  
once Kong was finished I ran out the garage door and boosted in the 
direction of the Government office.  The building was only 40 miles away and the 
roads were almost bare at 3:00 a.m. so I landed in the streets and boosted as 
much as I could and ran while recharging the capacitors.  Within 10 minutes 
I was standing in the parking lot of the office building and noticed only a 
dozen or so cars parked in the lot.  I looked around for security patrols or 
cameras and found none.  I knew that they were there though so I just 
radioed back to the Cortex and asked them what they wanted me to do.  “Ok 
Raven, we need you to do as much damage to that building as you can.  Try to get 
inside and into the lower levels where the most important computers and 
machines are.  The building was designed for human use only so your AC will not 
fit inside easily.  Good luck.”  

    The Cortex had nothing more to say so I just lifted my new KARASAWA 
and fired at the wall in front of me.  The KARASAWA let loose a huge dark 
green bolt of plasma and the wall all but disintegrated in front of me.  I 
could see the cross section of 8 floors of the building and no people inside.  
I guess that means the employees are in the levels below ground.  I 
started to move closer but stopped as a large section of the parking lot split 
open and a large heavy MT rose out of the ground.  I looked around and found 
several of the MTs rising out of the ground in several places.  “Well... it 
starts.”  

    I immediately shot my SAWA at the MT in front of me and the remote 
fighter never had a chance to react.  The MT had a huge hole through it 
and exploded within a few seconds.  I turned to the left and boosted right 
at another MT that was still being lifted out of the compartment under the 
parking lot.  I reached it in less than a second and slashed at it with 
my new STARLIGHT plasma blade.  The MT was split in half from head to 
crotch and the two halves exploded as they fell to the side.  “I’m on a roll!”  I 
jumped strait up and then boosted to the left to avoid a few missiles that a 
third MT fired at me.  The missiles turned and made another pass at me but 
this time the anti-missile cannon on my core shot them down before I had to 
dodge.  I stayed in the air and activated my missile launcher and support 
missile extensions.  I locked onto six different MTs and fired.  Two mid sized 
missiles slammed into each of the heavy but slow MTs and did major 
damage to them.  I turned off my extension and just fired six of my missiles 
letting each MT have one more.  Five of the MTs exploded and the last managed 
to dodge the missile witch plowed into the office building behind it.  The 
MTs kept coming out of the open doors in the lot and soon I was facing more 
than 15 of them.  I landed close to one of them and cut it in half as I 
boosted towards another.  

    The MTs were heavily armed but still no match for me.  I was 
actually having fun destroying them one after another after another.  I was 
kicking them over and stomping on them until they explode.  I even picked a few 
of them up and threw them at the building to do more damage to it.  The 
MTs stopped coming so I directed my assault back on the building.  I put my 
left arm out ahead of me and activated my plasma blade.  I hit the over 
boost and shot strait at the building at over 800 mph.  as I neared the building 
I cut the over boost and swung my blade in a long arch, cutting through the 
building.  My AC coasted through about 100 feet of the building, 
destroying 4 floors of offices and cubicles.  Kong was buried in debris and I was 
having a blast just throwing my arms and legs around destroying everything I 
could.  I used my blade to cut through the load bearing walls and soon I was able 
to collapse the building, all 28 stories above the second, witch was still 
standing, kind of.  I was just about to cut a hole through the floor to 
the lower levels when a bullet whizzed by my ACs head.  I looked in the 
direction the bullet came from but didn’t see anything.  “Kong, is there and 
enemy MT or AC in the area?”  “Negative, there are no MTs or ACs within a two 
kilometer radius.”  That just means there is a sniper with an incredibly long 
range out there somewhere.

    I stood there waiting and soon I saw a bullet heading for me at a 
very high rate of speed.  I just managed to dodge it when my radar went 
active and I saw a blip heading strait for me.  Another high speed sniper bullet 
just missed my head as I dodged to the side and then I saw the other AC, it 
was a light weight type loaded with missile launchers.  It was painted with 
the official colors of the Earth Government, off white with red trim, the 
same color as the remote Mts.  As soon as it was in range the AC fired 
missiles from every one of it’s launchers.  I had what had to be 30 small but 
fast missiles coming at me, and half of them were the vertical type.  I 
started dodging them as my cores anti-missile cannon went into over drive 
trying to shoot them all down.  It was successful at shooting about 8 of them but 
that left more than 20 for me to dodge.  I jumped left and then cut right 
and did a flip back to the left but for all of my trying, I still got hit by a 
few of the missiles.  The damage was light but the missiles generated a lot of 
heat, they must have been loaded with napalm because Kong told me that the 
exterior armor was on fire.  

    I fired a shot from my SAWA at the AC just as a sniper bullet hit 
the support missile extension on my right side.  The extension was damaged 
but repairable so I put it out of my mind and fired another couple of shots 
at the light missile boat in front of me.  It must have been overweight 
with all of those missile launchers and it showed.  the AC was moving slower 
than it should be but it was still quick enough to dodge my shots, but just 
barely. I boosted closer to it as it launched another volley of missiles from 
every launcher it had.  I hit my over boost and rocketed strait at the AC.  
The missiles were between us and heading my way, so I planted my feet in 
the ground and pushed off while still in over boost.  I was pushed high 
into the air and over the horizontal missiles but now I was heading for the 
vertical missiles.  I deactivated my over boost and activated my chain gun.  I 
fired into the group of missiles and took out 5 of them while my anti-missile 
cannon took care of another 3.  I waited until the last second and 
boosted to the left them over boosted forward again.  Doing this caused me to do a 
side step kind of maneuver around the missiles and left me heading right for 
my target at over 800 mph.  I reached the remote controlled AC in no time 
at all and stabbed it right through the generator causing it to immediately 
shut down.  

    As soon as I pulled my blade back from the Government AC I had to 
duck down to avoid yet another bullet from the mystery sniper.  I decided to 
leave the building for now and take care of the sniper before it found a way 
through my armor.  I hit my boosters and headed off in the direction 
the bullets were coming from.  Pretty soon I could see a blip on my radar 
but it wasn’t moving.  I had to dodge bullets all the way to the snipers 
location witch turned out to be at the top of a sky scraper nearly five miles 
away.  I boosted up the side of the building and once I reached the roof I was 
surprised to see a long range AC sniper rifle but no AC.  Instead, the 
rifle was mounted on a large frame bolted to the roof of the building and 
there was a young man dressed in a black military uniform sitting in the control 
chair of the weapon.  As I landed on the roof next to the gun, the man looked 
at me in absolute horror.  I aimed my SAWA at him and waited to see what he 
would do.  He got out of his seat and ran into the building leaving me out 
there with his sniper rifle.  I picked up the weapon and clipped it to my 
right thigh.  I could sell this thing for extra profit.

    I made my way back to the building to find that there were now 3 
midweight ACs ready for me.  They were each equipped with shot guns, 
plasma blades, and small pulse cannons.  As soon as I was in range I began to 
fly and fired my KARASAWA.  Whoever was controlling them was good because I 
couldn’t hit them until I got closer to them.  But now I was in range 
of their shot guns and they didn’t hesitate to use them.  The ACs were 
timing there shots so that they all fired at the same time, leaving me with a 
huge spread of bullets I had no way to dodge.  I was being peppered by the 
shot guns but luckily I was only suffering from small dents and paint chips.  
The ACs controllers must have realized this because they all switched to 
their pulse cannons and began to fire at will.  I had an easier time dodging 
these but the ones that did hit were doing there share of damage.  I managed 
to shoot the left arm off of one of them with my SAWA but that didn’t do 
me much good.  

    I backed up to re group and see what I could do.  I activated my 
missile launcher and extensions.  The right side extension was busted so I was 
out 3 missiles per launch.  I locked on to the three ACs but fired my SAWA 
and chain gun at the same time instead of launching the missiles.  The ACs 
began trying to dodge but I was on top of them.  AS the dodged the SAWAs 
plasma bolt, they moved right into the line of fire from my chain gun.  When I 
got the all worried about the KARASAWA and chain gun, I launched my 
missiles.  All of the ACs took at least two of the missiles and it caused them to 
stumble back a little, witch gave me time to hit them with my SAWA and 
chain gun combo.  Two of the ACs exploded and the third just shut down when 
the huge green bolts of plasma bored a hole into each of the ACs cores.

    I over boosted back to the building and cut my way down to the 
lower levels of the office.  I was down nearly 8 floors when my radar beeped 
again.  I looked up as an AC every bit as big as mine dropped with a huge thud 
right in front of me.  It was painted white and red like the others but it 
was equipped with a huge 500 mm cannon, an energy shield, and some of the 
biggest rockets I had ever seen.  I immediately slashed with my STARLIGHT blade 
but the AC activated it’s shield and deflected my attack.  As I pulled back 
to make room to fire my SAWA, the AC launched two of the huge rockets and 
I had no time to react.  the two rockets plowed into my core destroying my 
anti-missile core and sending my AC flying back through walls and cross 
ways through floors.  I landed hard on my back but used the momentum to roll 
backwards and onto my knees.  as soon as I could see the AC I fired my 
KARASAWA and the bolt hit the AC hard in the lower part of the core 
sending it flying back as well.  It quickly got up and over boosted towards me 
with it’s shield up.  I fired my SAWA again but the shot was defused by the 
heavy ACs shield.  The AC reached me and rammed me with it’s powerful MIRROR 
shield witch would have sent me flying if I had not grabbed the AC by the 
wrist with my left hand.  

    I started to push the AC backwards and up against a wall but the 
wall gave way and I kept pushing.  The AC planted it’s foot into my ACs 
waist and rolled backwards to monkey flip me.  But I knew it was coming and let 
go, letting the AC fall to the ground.  It seemed he was ready as well and 
boosted up before it even hit the ground.  As the AC flew upwards it 
fired two more rockets but I managed to let these ones get by me but they hit 
the ground behind me and the explosion send me stumbling forward.  I caught 
my balance just in time to avoid a huge cannon shell that ripped through 
the ground in front of me where I would have been if I had not caught my 
balance.  I jumped up and grabbed the AC by the ankle and let my weight pull it 
down.  As we fell I pulled my arm down and slammed the AC hard into the floor 
and through it.  The AC fell through several floors of the building and I 
lost sight of it.  I fired my SAWA into the hole it left but had no way to 
know if I hit my enemy or not.  

    Just as I fired my fifth shot, the AC boosted through the floor 
behind me and wrapped it’s arms around my AC.  It then hit it’s over boost and we 
both shot forward through 8 walls and finally we were stopped by the outer 
wall witch had only the earth on the other side of it.  He was trying to 
smash me against the wall but my arms were strong enough to push away from the 
wall even with him over boosting and pushing me into it.  I quickly turned 
around and met the AC face to face.  I hit my over boost and quickly over 
powered his.  He shut his over boost off because he ran out of power but I was 
nowhere near out of power.  I pushed him at 680 mph. back through the 
walls all the way to the opposite outer wall on the other side of the 
building.  The ACs back mounted rocket launchers were damaged beyond repair and 
it’s boosters were also smashed.  I cut my over boost and pulled the AC back 
away from the wall then over boosted again smashing him back and deepening 
the dent in the wall.  I then boosted backwards and fired my chain gun and 
SAWA into the core of the AC leaving many smoldering holes and dents all 
over it. But the AC wasn’t done yet, he lifted his cannon and fired it near my 
feet causing the floor to weaken and me to fall through.  My ACs falling 
weight was too much and I fell through another 5 floors before I hit the last 
level and stopped.  Tons of debris in the form of concrete and steel fell 
down around me.  I boosted back up but dodged to the left as a huge cannon 
shell whizzed past me.

    I made it back up to the Government AC and slashed again with my 
blade but once again the shield was used to block.  I tried again and was 
blocked again, but on my third try I stabbed instead of slashed and my blade 
pierced the energy shield, destroying the shield generator and the ACs left 
arm.  I saw the opening and spun a full 360 degrees, slashing across the ACs 
core at the same time.  The ACs right arm fell to the ground along with it’s 
cannon and the STARLIGHT blade cut a deep canyon across the core leaving the 
AC to sit there in a smoking pile of debris. 

    I took a look around and found that the building was pretty much 
destroyed from the battle so really had nothing left to do.  “Kong, 
damage report please.”  “Outer armor is badly damaged... Right side extension 
part is badly damaged... left arm is twisted on the X axis by 2 degrees... 
all other systems are functioning within normal parameters.”  Great, well 
it’s a good thing I made a lot of money on this mission.  Well technically 
it’s not done yet.  I called up the Global Cortex mission director.  “Good job 
Kur, your mission was a success.  The Government has just told us that all 
attempts to take over the Cortex will cease.  Apparently they had some 
very important research in that building that they just couldn’t manage 
without.  Once again Kur, good job.”  Now my mission is over.  I boosted out of 
the lower levels of the office building, witch was now just a big hole full 
of debris, and made my way to the garage.

to be continued