I was taking major fire through the whole battle, unable to boost I was 
getting hit by 8 out of ten shots.  it was lucky for me the shells were 
relatively weak so my armor would still hold up, for now anyway.  I checked 
my power gauge, “damn I’m down to 18%.  and my generator was still 1 minute 
20 seconds from coming back on-line.  I had to do something fast if I was 
going to survive this mission.  “More like a gang rape”  I didn’t have the 
energy to make it until my generator came back on-line I had to think. “think 
damn it think!”  I need to take cover until my generator is back up but 
where? there is nothing here but pillars and the MTs are fast enough to get 
behind me anyway.  that’s when I got the idea.  I ran for one of the hatches 
on the floor that the MTs flew out of.  it was closed of course so I punched 
it and to my surprise my ACs fist went right through the steel door.  I pried 
the doors apart and hopped inside pulling the door shut behind me.  the MTs 
were shooting through the doors but the bullets lost considerable power and 
were just bouncing off my AC like a light hail storm.  “by God I think I’ve 
done it.”  I was content to stay in that hole until the ten minutes ran dry 
but I had only earned 80,000 cr. and I was sure my ACs damage was more than 
that.  I needed the last 8 kills to make it out of here with a profit.

    That last minute seemed to take forever.  As I was counting down the 
seconds until my generator kicked back on I looked up to see the MTs drilling 
through the thin steel doors. “10” their drills are coming through “9” damn 
it they are putting there gun barrels in the holes “8...7...6”  they almost 
have the hinges off! “5...4...3...” the door is being lifted off! “2..” crap 
I am wide open and stuck in a hole! “...1...” that one’s got a bazooka aimed 
at my head! “zero!” my generator kicked on and my capacitor gauge filled in a 
flash.  

to be continued

    I immediately hit my boosters and jumped out of the hole.  on the way out 
I grabbed the bazooka out of the MTs hands and tried to fire it but my ACs 
hands were to big to fit on the handle.  instead I flew into the air almost 
to the ceiling.  I pulled the magazine off the bazooka and let the shells 
drop.  they exploded on impact and I took out 2 more MTs this way.  I stayed 
in the air as long as I could dodging fire from below and searching for where 
I dropped my laser rifle.  I found it on the other side of the room but the 
MT trapped under it was now free and the malfunctioning one seemed to be 
fully operational.

    I made it to my Karasawa and picked it up, be the time I turned around 
the MTs were all around me with there machine guns and flame-thrower going.  
my ACs radiator just couldn’t keep up.  I was dangerously close to going into 
output down status again.  I fired three shots from the Karasawa and watched 
as 4 MTs were melted into puddles of steel.  “wow 2 for 1 deal”  the 
remaining 4 MTs took off like rockets and headed to the far end of the room.  
this game my AC time to cool off a little and gave me time to do a damage 
check.

    My AC was in a little better shape than I thought.  I only had 4 holes in 
my armor and the only internal damage was a bullet went right through the 
conduits that supply my over boost boosters with energy.  well no over boost 
is probably a good thing right now.  there were plenty of dents in my armor 
due to the light machine gun fire but I could have a construction MT pound 
those out in a few hours.  I checked my watch and saw that I still had over 
six minutes remaining in the mission with only 4 enemy units to go.  I was 
thinking, “hell yea, I am going home with 160,000 credits tonight!”  well I 
was until I saw what those last four MTs had done.  

    they came back from the far side of the room but they were different.  
there were only 2 of them now but they seemed larger?... no they didn’t get 
bigger, they connected themselves together!!!  now instead of 4 lightning 
quick MTs to deal with I have 2 larger quadruped MTs that are much faster!  
as they were running, much like a cat I thought, they threw their small 
machine guns and flame throwers down and latched the four arms each now had, 
into two arms.  the hands then shot off and out of the arms a large barrel 
emerged.  

    “They have GRENADE LAUNCHERS?!?!”  I was in trouble now.  those machine 
gun bullets just dented me a little, a grenade launcher of that size will 
blow me in half!  the closest MT fired 2 shots at the same time.  if I wasn’t 
so scared that I couldn’t move I would have been dead.  the two shots went to 
either side of me, presumably so that I would jump to the side right into the 
path of one of them.  the next two shots however were not to the side, they 
were right on target.  I boosted strait up into the air and lifted the Sawa 
to fire.  “you may have bigger guns and more legs but you have the SAME 
ARMOR!”  with that I fired and watched in unbearable disbelief when the large 
blue mass of light simply dispersed into a shield that surrounded the MT.  

     I didn’t get it.  the MTs didn’t have the shield when they weren’t 
connected, why would they have them now?  then I understood.  when the MTs 
were separate machines the one generator had to supply power to movement, 
weapons control, and all of the other things that drain power.  no that they 
are connected, one of the generators can supply movement and other stuff 
leaving the other generator, or most of it anyway to power a continuous 
shield.  well that was my theory and I was stickin to it.  I tried 8 more 
shots just to be sure I wasn’t weakening the shield any, I wasn’t.  I dropped 
the Karasawa again to lighten my load and give myself a little more 
maneuverability.  I checked my energy gauge and saw that it was almost 
depleted. I had to land soon or run out.  

     I turned off my boosters and began to drop.  on the way down my gauge 
filled almost half way and as soon as I hit the ground I jumped to avoid 4 
grenades that were about to hit me.  as soon as I was back in the air I 
boosted forward and slashed at the nearest MT with my blade.  no surprise 
there, the blade was also dispersed by the shield.  I had to go in the old 
fashioned way.  I turned off the blade and tried to reach in with my hand.  
my hand passed right through the shield and I was inches from grabbing one of 
the heads on this deranged MT when it boosted back away from me and fired two 
more grenades.  this time I dodged to the side but still took damage from the 
force of the blast that went off right next to my ACs foot.  I looked down to 
see the front (toes) of the right foot was blown off and there were sparks 
flying everywhere.  this made it surprisingly difficult to keep my balance 
and hindered my mobility.  

    I had no idea how I was going to beat these MTs with that shield up.  I 
had one of them staying back in a corner launching continuous volleys at me 
while the other stayed in close but just out of my reach.  I kept dodging as 
much as I could and was lucky not to take any direct hits.  I had plenty of 
large dents from the concussive blast the grenades made when exploding near 
me.  I was at my wits end when I noticed something.  the MT hiding in the 
corner wasn’t shooting anymore.  it was just standing there, “It’s out of 
ammo!!!”  and by my calculations the MT closer to me only had 4 shots left 
and I had 1 minute 30 seconds exactly to finish them off.  

    I waited for the last four shots from the MT and hoping my calculations 
were right I boosted right at him but he easily out ran me and ran strait 
backwards.  I saw an advantage to this so I veered slightly to the left and 
he veered to the right, well my right.  doing this I managed to get him 
heading right for his partner in the corner.  my plan was to trap them both 
in the corner and rip them to shreds with my ACs bare hands. but things never 
go as planned.

    as soon as the shields of the two MTs touched a small explosion went off 
inside of the MTs bodies.  then another, and another, until finally they both 
exploded in a huge fireball.  my ACs alarm was going off from the heat but I 
managed to back away in time to avoid output down.  “Congratulations Mr. Kur. 
 you performed much better than expected.  you have just earned yourself 
160,000 credits. and you had one minute to spare as well.  for your efforts 
we are prepared to offer you a bonus reward. but you must accomplish one more 
task to earn said bonus.”  I was about to tell this woman to go to hell, my 
AC was falling apart and it was going to cost me half the money I earned to 
fix it.  but apparently she wasn’t asking me if I wanted the bonus.  “The 
bonus portion of this mission begins now.” 

    With that a large door on the wall to my left opened and all I could see 
was a bright light.  I boosted back towards my Karasawa while looking at the 
light in the doorway.  I was halfway to my rifle when a silhouette appeared 
in the light.  it was huge.  it had to be twice the size of my AC and it had 
weapons poking out all over the place.  As the... whatever it was, got closer 
I could see two grenade launchers, two missile launchers, two energy machine 
guns, and two weapons I couldn’t recognize.  all of them were pointed at me 
and all of them looked very large and powerful.

to be continued

    “Ok Kur this thing is big and heavy and has the same weaknesses as you 
do, take advantage of them.”  I kept telling myself that but I still didn’t 
believe it.  I got to my Sawa and hit the button to lock the right hand 
fingers in place around it’s stock.  I lifted the rifle and took aim, my FCS 
confirmed the lock and I pulled the trigger.  I was happy to see that my shot 
didn’t diffuse into some shield but I was devastated to see that by the time 
my shot got to where the monstrosity was, the monstrosity was no longer 
there.  as a matter of fact it was half way to me and the bright white flame 
that seemed to be pouring out of it’s back told me that his over boost still 
worked.  

    “oh crap oh crap oh crap OHCRAPOHCRAPOHCRAP!!!”  I didn’t know what to 
do, I kept firing over and over and each time the enemy would dodge to the 
left or right and be well out of the way of my shots.  I was in a panic, it 
was my second mission and I am facing this thing this monster MT thing that 
is twice my size and 50 times my speed and who knows how much more powerful 
it’s offense.  I didn’t know why but I extended my plasma sword and held it 
up across my field of view.  just as the blade was at it’s full height the 
monster MT boosted over my head and it’s blade ran connected with mine.  I 
heard the MT land behind me but I was to slow to turn around.  I boosted 
strait to the left and watched as more than 8 large missiles rocketed by to 
my right just missing my right arm.  if they would have hit I would be dead 
right now.  

    I was using my radar to dodge missiles and grenades because I couldn’t 
keep the MT from running behind me.  I knew I couldn’t keep it up forever.  I 
had to come up with something fast.  I looked around in a panic and as I 
looked down I saw a hose hanging out of the side of my core.  at first I 
didn’t know what it was but then it hit me.  it was the over boost conduit 
that was damaged while I was fighting the small Mts.  that gave me an idea 
but I had no idea if it would even work or not, and I had no idea if I had 
the right end of the conduit hanging out.  

    Well I didn’t have much of a choice.  I pulled as much of the conduit out 
and held it in my ACs right hand.  I aimed it behind me over my shoulder and 
waited for the right moment.  I watch my radar very closely “NOW!”  As the MT 
over boosted towards me I waited until my radar said it was within 30 feet of 
me.  I released the limiter on my generator and fired the over booster.  I 
closed my eyes from the pain of it.  the noise was so loud you could barely 
hear it, it was such an awful deafening noise, I could feel the blood 
dripping out of my ears and the vibration was jarring me to the bone.  every 
alarm on my AC was set off but I couldn’t hear them.  it was just the noise.  

    It only lasted for a few seconds but it felt like an eternity.  I was 
deaf, a few of my teeth were loose from the vibration.  My AC was not 
operational.  I had to use the manual override switch to open the hatch.  I 
stepped out onto the open hatch door and looked around.  Nothing, all I saw 
was the burning MTs from the first match and the building.  I figured I must 
have destroyed or at least incapacitated the monster MT because it has been 
over 5 minutes since my AC shut down.  I climbed up onto the shoulder of my 
AC and looked over.  

    Just behind the AC were the MTs feet, one actually leaning against my ACs 
leg.  behind that was,... the outside?  the entire building was gone behind 
me.  there was no dust, no debris, no nothing.  Just a big grove in the 
ground that had to be a half mile long and probably 100 feet deep.  I had no 
idea the blast would be so strong.  I might have left the limiter on if I had 
known it would cause so much destruction.  

    As my hearing came back I heard somebody clapping and I looked down to 
see a woman dressed in a very expensive looking business suit walking with 4 
men who were also sharply dressed.  I climbed back to my cockpit and kicked 
out the emergency rope ladder.  once I reached the floor I was greeted by the 
woman.  “Hello, my name is Stephanie Mactaggart.”  I looked her over and was 
happy to see she was a young woman, maybe 25 years old and very well 
proportioned.  she had strait, dark black hair down to her shoulders and blue 
eyes.  she was wearing very little makeup and had earrings with large 
diamonds on them.  “I was the one who designed the MTs you fought here today 
and I must say I was very surprised to see you alive.  I designed these MTs 
specifically to combat ACs.  I see that I have a lot of work to do.”  I felt 
like punching her in the face but I was raised better than that.  she hired 
me to come here and fight these things expecting me to die.  

    I was furious, I had to do something to piss her off. “Yeah well you sure 
did a piss poor job then.  this is only my second mission as a Raven, just 
imagine what an experienced veteran could do to your little toys.”  that 
seemed to put sand in her vagina big time. “Now you listen here mister!”  oh 
great here it comes. I could hear the “I’m better than you are” in her voice 
for sure.  

    As I stood there listening to her bitching I realized she was checking me 
out to.  “and why not?” I thought to myself.  I have a little sex appeal, I 
think.  I bet she isn’t used to seeing somebody standing so far over her 
head, I know that these corporate types always have there employees sitting 
in low chairs so that the leader always seems taller.  even these guys she is 
with are slouching some to seem shorter.  she couldn’t have been more than 
5’5 with heels on and I was 6’4.  I caught her looking at my body a lot, at 
first I was thinking all those hours at the gym are paying off.  but then I 
realized I was filthy, I had smoke and blood stains all over me.  I was glad 
that I keep my brown hair short, actually almost shaved off most of the time. 
 I couldn’t imagine being a Raven with hair in your eyes all the time and 
sticking to your face when you sweat.  “...and another thing, just because 
you got lucky and...” God was she still talking?  she is looking right in my 
eyes now.  I wonder if I stare back will she look away?  yep she sure did.  
she isn’t as dominant as she thought she was.  but then again my eyes can be 
kinda scary.  they are sky blue with a dark green ring around the pupils.  
and for some reason the part of my eyes that are supposed to be white are a 
light gray.  “...so take your money and your bonus and get the hell out of 
what is left of my building!” Ah just the part I was waiting for.  

    “So what is this bonus you forced me to accept?”  I was curious now, what 
could possibly be worth going up against that monster MT?  “Hmm, well I did 
promise you a bonus and so you shall have one.”  “well spit it out, what 
‘shall’ it be?”  Ha! that got a scowl out of her. “come with me.”

    to be continued!!! 

    Stephanie led me to a small door on the back wall of what was left of the 
building.  We walked through a long series of man sized hallways with out 
saying a word.  I didn’t care much that we weren’t talking, frankly she 
annoyed me and I was just fine walking behind her watching her butt swing 
back and forth as she walked.  after a while I noticed that the halls were at 
a slight decline, so I figured we were headed underground.   we soon came to 
the polished aluminum doors of an elevator.  One of Stephanie’s goons pressed 
the down button.  The doors separated and we all entered the 10 by 10 box.

    After inserting a card key Stephanie said “I suggest you hold the hand 
rail.”  with that the elevator seemed to just drop.  We had to be just free 
falling, I could feel my feet coming off of the floor.  after a few seconds I 
could tell we weren’t falling, we were being pushed down at incredible speed. 
 everybody was floating up in the elevator using their hands to stop from 
hitting their heads on the ceiling.  we had been dropping like this for 
almost 5 minutes when everybody began to slowly float back down to the floor 
of the elevator.  as soon as our feet touched the elevator began to slow down 
very quickly.  I could feel the weight of my goatee pulling on my chin.  
eventually we stopped and the doors opened.

    We stepped out and into a massive area.  I couldn’t see any walls or the 
ceiling.  the only structure I could see was a giant support pillar that 
looked to be nearly a mile away.  to the sides I could see giant racks 
holding various AC and MT parts.  in front of me were rows and rows of people 
sitting at desks and other standing at work stations welding and assembling 
various things.  “Follow me Raven.”  Stephanie began walking forward through 
the middle row of desks.  As I followed I glanced around at the blueprints 
and computer screens of the workers.  I couldn’t make out much but I did see 
a computer screen with the blueprints to a chip of some kind labeled 
OP-INTENSIFY.  as soon as the worker noticed me looking he covered the screen 
with his hands.  

    “So just where are you taking me Ms. McDonalds?”  “That’s Mactaggart, and 
I am taking you to your bonus.”  I just wish she would hurry, I was anxious 
to get home and begin repairs on my beaten AC.  eventually we reached the 
support pillar I saw earlier.  there was a door on it witch we walked 
through.  inside was,... my AC?  there it was standing on a platform with 
about 20 tiny construction MTs buzzing around it like worker bees around a 
flower.  “What the hell are they doing to my AC?”  I didn’t know if I should 
be mad or glad.  if they charge me with the repairs I thought I might kill 
these people with my bare hands.  Stephanie must have read my mind. “Relax 
Mr. Kur these repairs are part of your bonus.  the rest is right over here.”  

    I followed her over to a corner of the room and was invited to sit at a 
large meeting table and she sat at the other end.  “Mr. Kur. do you have a 
last name because I really feel stupid saying Mr. Kur?”  Great now she thinks 
my name is stupid. “Nope no last name, why don’t you just call me Kur and 
drop the Mr.”  I was going to tell her to call me her daddy but I figured 
that wouldn’t be wise when I as so close to finding out what my bonus is and 
her security goons all around me.  “Fine, Kur.  if you will look in front of 
you there is a monitor.  On that monitor you will see some blueprints for a 
new type of motor control for ACs.  As you know, AC movement has always been 
accomplished by the manipulation of hydraulic pistons and levers.  Each limb 
was required to house it’s own hydraulic pump and god forbid a bullet should 
breach the armor and cut a hose so you couldn’t use that limb anymore.”

    I was very intrigued by what this young woman was telling me.  I am after 
all an AC mechanic.  “We have developed a type of high strength polymer.  it 
is hundreds of times stronger than steel and extremely flexible.  Mr. Gerban 
please bring in the display.”  soon a man entered the room pushing a cart 
that had something under a white sheet on it.  Stephanie then pulled the 
sheet off revealing what was underneath.  It was some sort of stand with an 
arm hanging strait out to the right.  from the arm something that seemed to 
be made of strands or coils was hanging limply.  it was solid black and 
swayed with the motion of the cart.

    “Now this is what I have talking about.”  She held the material in her 
hand, pulling it, stretching it, and running her fingers over it.  “As you 
can see it is very flexible and quite light.  A single strand of it no more 
than a millimeter wide could support almost 600 kilograms hanging from it.  
Now for the exciting part.”  Her assistant, this Mr. Gerban, attached some 
wires to each end of the polymer and stepped back to some kind of control box 
that was at the other end of the wires.  “Now Mr. Gerban.”  He pressed a 
button on the control box and the polymer immediately contracted and became 
more than a fourth the length it was originally.  Mr. Gerban then pressed a 
different button and the polymer returned to normal.”

    I was amazed.  if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I never would have 
believed it.  I guess Stephanie could see the disbelief in her eyes.  “That’s 
right Kur.  We have created the worlds first artificial muscle.  How do you 
think we got the Titan MT to move so quickly?  And the best part is that if a 
bullet is shot through the muscle, the muscle won’t be damaged.  the next 
time the muscle is contracted the damaged cords will reattach themselves.  it 
would take the entire mass to be cut in half for the muscle to fail.  And as 
we speak your AC is being rebuilt from the ground up.  it will look the same 
as before but it will have our new artificial muscle system installed in it.  
You will now be able to equip larger weapons because your ACs total weight 
will be reduced by 30% and it’s strength will be increased by 150%.  your AC 
will be much faster, stronger, and able to take much more punishment than 
ever before.”  I could see a large smile across her face, she was very proud 
of her creation, as she should be.  I didn’t hate her so much anymore, not 
because she was giving me this wonderful technology, but because she earned 
and deserved whatever she has.  she actually seemed proud to be using my AC 
to graft her artificial muscle to.

    “Well I must say Ms. Stephanie, I am... well I am ecstatic!  I thought I 
was just getting some optional part called OP-INTENSIFY, but this is 
amazing!”  The happy look on her face suddenly changed.  “Where did you hear 
about that part?  Who told you?”  This didn’t sound good,  if she thinks I 
know what this optional part does she could have me dead before I left the 
room.  “Whoa whoa whoa, calm down I just saw the name on a computer screen as 
we were walking in.  I didn’t see anything else.”  Even I could hear the fear 
in my voice.  I had to calm myself down before I could calm her down.  She 
looked very very pissed, “How do I know you aren’t lying to save your ass?” 
crap “because, well... how could I know about it?  I mean, uh...” I was lost 
I didn’t know what to say. “um, what about I lie detector test?”  Her face 
seemed to lighten up after I said that. 

    “Gerban! Get me the lie detector!”  the assistant left the room and came 
back in a few moments later.  “You just happen to have a lie detector?”  
“Well Kur I have to make sure my employees are keeping all my secrets don’t 
I?”  She walked over to where I was sitting and told me to lift my arm.  she 
then placed a small plastic clamp over the end of my finger and then placed a 
collar around my neck.  Mr. Gerban nodded his head and pulled a small yellow 
computer pad out of his pocket.  “Mr. Kur, did you hear about the 
OP-INTENSIFY part from somebody outside of this building?”  “No”  I hoped I 
wasn’t the .01% that fails these things no matter how they answer.  “Mr. Kur, 
did you read the words OP-INTENSIFY on a computer screen in this building?”  
“Yes”  I had the fingers in my other hand crossed for luck, even though I’m 
not superstitious.  “Mr. Kur, have you had any prior knowledge of the 
OP-INTENSIFY part before you read the words on the computer screen?” “No”  I 
was sweating big time.  how is it that you only get nervous about being 
exposed in a lie when you are telling the truth?  “congratulations Mr. Kur 
you passed.”  well now I was confused, “But how do you know? you didn’t even 
read the results.”  I realized as soon as I finished saying it that I should 
have kept my mouth shut.  “Hahaha, you are very observant but not very bright 
aren’t you Mr. Kur?  I know you are telling the truth because people always 
tell the truth when hooked up to a lie detector.  they know that the person 
giving the test will find out the truth one way or another so they just tell 
the truth right off the bat.  Mr. Kur, this isn’t even a real lie detector, 
it’s just a yellow box with a couple of wires on it.”  

    After the meeting I was given a room in the employees quarters behind the 
warehouse I destroyed.  I was told that my AC would be completed in a weeks 
time.  I couldn’t wait to try it out, to see if all of Stephanie’s claims 
about the speed and strength were correct.  I was more excited about the 
increased speed.  My AC was already stronger than most others just by virtue 
of it’s heavyweight parts.  My mission against all of these faster MTs was 
proof enough that slow and powerful is not very effective against quick and 
weak.  although I did survive the battle I was counting myself lucky.  if 
that energy conduit hadn’t fallen out of my AC I would be dead right now.  
That Titan MT would have carved me to pieces in a split second.