I decided that in this case a best defense is a good offense. We would take out one AC at a time and increase our odds rather than try and take them all at the same time. “Everybody converge at the coordinates I am sending and surround that AC. We’ll take him out first because he has the most damage already.” All 10 of us surrounded the AC and began firing out little hand guns. The AC wasn’t taking much damage but I could tell he was over heating quickly. “Jimmy, Ryan, target the arms, don’t let him fire those weapons!” I fired on the ACs back weapon and at the close range I managed to destroy the ammo clip causing the weapon to explode. Soon after the AC shut down from the heat of the bullets and fell over. We made our way to the next AC and tried the same plan but this time we were split up by another AC who came to the help of his friend. As we fired on one of them, the other shot one of our MTs at close range with the spread howitzer and the MT promptly blew up. I boosted up and around the heavy AC and fired a few shots at the head. When I landed I grabbed the AC by the leg and lifted it about 20 feet off the ground. The pilot inside lost his balance and toppled over where the rest of the MTs used their construction tools and took the head and left arm off of the fallen AC. “Come on guys! Get this AC away from me!” One of the Martian Ravens was trying to get away from a pursuing enemy but couldn’t quite shake him. “The rest of you keep ganging up on one AC at a time and if another comes to help him fly strait up.” I left the rest of the MTs and flew over to the fleeing Raven. I landed in front of the enemy AC and he plowed into me at full speed. My MT was knocked over and stepped on but the AC fell too and the ally I was helping immediately used his blade to cut the fallen enemy in half. “Kur, we just lost another MT. It’s totaled but Evan managed to eject in time. Holy... We just lost another AC too. We got to do something, there are just too many of them.” He was right, the ACs weren’t letting us surround them anymore and we were being overrun. “Every body fly up!” We all flew up about 1200 feet over the battle to regroup. “Ok, we need to keep in the air. I want you to land on an enemy and try to pull it’s head off or knock it down or something, just incapacitate it for a few seconds so one of our guys can finish it off.” We all cut our boosters and fell back into the battle. I landed on an AC that was about to kill an ally and grabbed it’s head with my free left hand and boosted up again. The AC came off the ground before the head sparked wildly and then came off. As soon as the headless AC landed, one of the Martian Cavalry team members moved in and slashed it’s core open with a blade. Several other MTs were trying to pull AC heads off but after watching me the enemy was ready for it. They dodged the falling MTs and shot them as they landed. One caught an MT by the leg and threw it into the ground and shot it with the spread slug-gun on it’s back. As I boosted over to help one of the ACs that was trying to take on two enemies I was attacked from behind by another one. My AC was knocked to the ground and I rolled it onto it’s back only to find a howitzer pointed at me. I hit my boosters and flew off just as the AC fired. My MTs legs were blown off but I could still fly with my boosters, for now. I boosted right into one of the ACs that was double teaming my comrade and knocked it back a few steps. I fired a few shots at it’s head and got lucky, I hit it’s visual sensor and blinded it. I left it to attack another nearby enemy but I was again knocked down by an AC from behind. It sucks not having a good radar. This time I boosted before I turned over and managed to avoid a close range shotgun blast. I flew up about 500 feet and surveyed the battle. There were still 14 enemy ACs left and only 8 ally ACs and a whopping 5 MTs besides myself. I decided to try and end this right now. “Jimmy, are you still there?” “Yeah.” “Good, you come up here with me.” Jimmy flew his MT up to meet me and we flew up even higher, to about 1500 feet. “Ok Jimmy you stay here and get ready to pick us up.” “What do you mean?” I didn’t have time to explain to him but he’d figure it out. I flew down to the battle and flipped on my com link. “Everybody copy me, and you Martian Cavalry guys get ready to run for it.” I boosted my MT over to where two ACs were teaming up on an ally AC and got between them. I grabbed each one by the arm and locked my arms in place. I set my generator to overload and hit the eject button. I was sent flying through the air in my cockpit chair and used the small boosters to guide myself away from the battle and next to Evan before my power supply ran out. I landed hard but managed to climb out of the ejection seat and look back at the battle. I could see the two ACs with my half gone MT between them. They were trying to get apart but my construction MT was designed to hold heavy loads. Suddenly my MT exploded in a huge ball of fire taking the two AC with it. I watched the battle rage on as the other MTs attached them selves to the remaining enemy ACs. The Martian Cavalry took the hint and over boosted away from the battle and were out of sight before the rest of the MTs self destructed. All together the 5 MTs that self destructed took out 7 ACs and confused the others long enough for the ally ACs to escape. But the battle wasn’t over because the remaining ACs were boosting over to where myself and the other 5 pilots were standing. Jimmy boosted ahead of them and landed in front of us. We didn’t have time to get inside the small cargo bay in the back of the MT so we just climbed onto the foot and held on tight as Jimmy boosted us up just before the ACs reached us. We flew up to 3000 feet to get out of range of the ACs weapons and Jimmy flew us back to the transporter where the Martian Cavalry was waiting. “Bloody good job boys. Reminds me of myself as an MT pilot.” I must say though, I never would have though to use my MT as a time bomb. Quick thinking lad.” Maybe this Darren guy wasn’t so bad after all. “Thanks. Just try not to let it happen again though ok?” “Haha I don’t plan on it son.” After the small talk we loaded the remaining ACs and the one MT into the transport and flew back to the Global Cortex. to be continued When we got back to the garage everybody got off the transport and went their separate ways. I knew that I was going to have a busy day tomorrow so I decided to get a head start and finish out the day working on the damaged ACs. Every one of them was nearly totaled. Several of them were missing arms and one was missing a leg. Two of the more unfortunate Ravens were better off buying a brand new AC rather than spend money trying to fix their current one. By 9:00 p.m. I had repaired one AC and pieced together the Two ACs that needed to be replaced. I left the garage and drove back to my house for a good nights sleep. When I got home I checked my e-mail and found a message from the Global Cortex saying that for my mission as an MT pilot I was paid 4,500 credits and a hazard pay of 4,000. “Damn rip off.” Well I guess that 8,500 credits wasn’t bad considering my annual pay of 58,000 cr., but it seems low compared to my recent payoffs as a Raven. I continued checking my mail and almost fell out of my chair when I saw a message from Trish. I activated the link and a holographic image of Trish about 18 inches tall appeared on my desk. “Hi Kur, I just wanted to let you know I haven’t forgot about you. I really had fun on our date and I hope we can see each other again some time. Oh yeah, I got my dad to pull some strings and I am officially rank E-97 in the arena. I think I can get myself to the D ranks pretty quickly. My first match is going to be in 3 weeks at the arena in Corella City. It’s going to be on pay per view so maybe you can catch it. Well I guess that’s all I have to say for now, e-mail me back ok? Bye sweetie.” Wow, she called me sweetie. I am so falling for her. I guess I should mail her back. I activated the web cam on my computer and stood back a few feet. “Hi Trish, I just got your e-mail. Um, I’m happy you got into the arena and I’m sure your going to do great. I’ll definitely order your match on pay per view and I’ll be rooting for you. Heck, I might even take a trip to Corella City for the match if I can get some time off work. Anyway, keep in touch, I, well, I’d like to see you again, sometime. Good bye for now.” Well I guess it wasn’t as corny as I thought it would be. My palms were sweaty and my voice was cracking a little, but I think I did ok. Once I took a few deep breaths and calmed down I took a shower and got into bed. The next morning I woke up and went to work. I had a busy day of repairing and rebuilding ACs and the one surviving MT. I just managed to finish at 6:00 and ran out the door to my truck. I drove to the warehouse were my AC should be completed and waiting for me. Once again I flashed my temporary pass at the guard and walked through the door. I made my way to the elevator and found an out of order sign hanging on it. “You have got to be kidding me.” I knew there was a large cargo elevator in the ground level warehouse so I went there and tried it out. I swiped my card on the console “Access denied.” “Shit!” Now what? Maybe there is another elevator somewhere, I decided to ask somebody. “Nope, those are the only two and I don’t have the access to the cargo elevator either. If you really need to get down there you can use the emergency stairs. Sorry.” I couldn’t believe it. It takes an elevator dropping at 175 mph. nearly 15 minutes to get down there and I am supposed to walk down the stairs? I made my way to the stair case and started down the stairs. After an hour of walking down the spiral stair case I looked over the edge and still couldn’t see the bottom. “Son of a bitch, God damned piece of shit!” I was so pissed. I needed to get down there faster if I was going to get there tonight. I climbed over the railing and took a moment to build up some courage. I looked over my shoulder and jumped across the gap and down a floor to the railing on the other side. “Well... so far so good.” I repeated the process a few times and made it down a dozen or so floors before I stopped for a break. I climbed back over the rail and walked down the stairs as I let my arms rest. after a few minutes I climbed over the rail and started my daring decent again. I made it down ten more floors when my hand slipped off the rail and I fell backwards. I was just about to panic and scream when my back hit the other side of the gap and my hand found the railing again. “Damn that was close.” Well I knew that if I fell I could recover easily enough so my confidence was boosted a little. Before long I was hoping down the railing like a monkey and not even thinking about it. It was another hour and a half before I made it to a floor with a door on it. I opened the door and found a hall leading to an elevator door. I pressed the button and was happy to see the doors open. I got inside and inserted my pass key into the slot, the doors shut and the elevator began to accelerate down the shaft. A few moments later the elevator stopped and I walked out into the warehouse where my AC was standing, complete with armor. It was beautiful. I mean it looked the same as before but now it had a paint job and a neck. The paint was just like I wanted. It was forest green with light brown and tan outlines. There was a lot of black on it to but it was used in a way that you think it is just shadows. My weapons were also attached now, my KARASAWA in the right hand, and the medium plasma blade latched onto the forearm of the left arm. I was in such awe that I forgot all about my frustration at the elevator and the long day at work and anything else that was eating away at me all day. I walked slowly around my AC inspecting the joints and the seams in the armor. The paint was buffed and shined so well that I could see my face in it. “It’s a real piece of work isn’t it?” I was caught by surprise and turned on my heals with my fists up. I saw that it was the same scientist that told me all of the new additions to my AC when I first tested it. “Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” “It’s all right, so is it ready? Did you fix the boosters and get all of the armor on?” “Yep sure did, finished it up about five hours ago. We tested the AC ourselves in a wind tunnel to make sure it was ready for you when you got here. Ms. Mactaggart was watching over our shoulders the entire time to make sure we get it right.” “Really? I would have thought she would have you just throw everything together to get me out of here faster.” “Yeah that’s what I thought to, she really seemed to hate you, but last night she had a sudden change of heart and seemed very worried that wee might mess up.” I knew that she still hated me so she must have had some reason to be so concerned for my safety. Probably to try and get me to do more of those ridiculous missions of hers. “So are you going to get in this thing or what? I am as anxious as you to see how it performs with the armor on.” “Hehe, I’m on my way.” to be continued I climbed the stairs onto the platform next to my AC and made my way to the open cockpit. I noticed the hatch was quite a bit thicker than it used to be. Once inside I put on the special suit I was now required to wear and then strapped myself into the control arms. I inserted my key and the AC started right up. “Welcome back Kur. Systems check... New armor found... New weapons found... All systems functioning normally.” “I guess that means I can start moving around now.” “You can move whenever you like Kur.” “Oh, even while you are doing a system check?” “That is affirmative Kur. To wait for the completion of the systems check could result in heavy damage or destruction in a combat situation.” “I guess your right.” It was going to take some time to get used to talking to the computer but it made me feel more comfortable in a strange sort of way, like I wasn’t in the cockpit piloting the huge weapon by myself. “Well now or never.” I lifted my arm and the right arm holding the heavy KARASAWA easily followed my movement. I took a step forward, followed by another and another. Eventually I was running and couldn’t even feel the added weight of the armor and weapons. I tried jumping around a little and was having a lot of fun. I tried jumping as high as I could and found that with the armor and weapons now attached I lost 22 feet on my vertical jumping ability. With the basics out of the way I tried out the boosters. They were as powerful as I remember them. I hit the ignition button and found myself fighting to keep my head up against the G force. I lifted into the air and flew in several large circles and a few loops. I was worried that I would have a hard time controlling it but I found that I now had more control than I did before they modified the boosters. All in all I was very happy with the results. When I was done with the testing I landed my AC next to the platform and removed my key from the ignition. “Systems shutting down, good-bye Kur.” I got out of the cockpit and walked down the platform and down the stairs to the feet of my AC. “Kong. It sure looks like a Kong doesn’t it?” It was Stephanie walking out of the elevator doors. She was looking up at my AC and walking over to me. “It’s a fitting name I think, good choice.” “Um, yeah thanks.” “It really turned out to be a great machine. I am almost sad to let it go. It is going to take a while for us to make more of the artificial muscle for our own AC.” Something was wrong here. She was being way too nice to me. Nobody said anything for a while, we just stared at the AC until the quiet was becoming uncomfortable. “So Kur, have you thought about my proposal?” “I think I need some more time to think. I’m not sure I want to be known for favoring one corporation over another. A lot of Ravens are hunted down for that sort of thing. I see it every day, a corporation hiring two or three Ravens to take out another Raven who won’t work for them or continually works against them.” “Oh come on. You aren’t really worried about that are you? With this AC there isn’t a Raven out there that could match up to you.” “What about two Ravens or three? What if they send four or five Ravens after me? I don’t think I could fend that many off, you have to remember, I am still a rookie.” “Ok ok, fine. I am not going to pressure you. Just take a few more days to think about it. And hey, if you happen to ever become the target of another corporation I’ll back you 100%. I’ll hire more Ravens to help you out. Just think about it.” “Ok I’ll think about it. But I am not making any promises. Now can I please take my AC and go home?” “Oh yes of course. Go to the cargo elevator and I’ll raise you up to the ground floor.” It was about time. I was sick of hearing her voice with her fake concern for my well being. I got into my AC and moved it over to the cargo elevator. Stephanie inserted her key card and the elevator began to rise. I thought I was imagining things but there was Stephanie waving good-bye to e with a big smile on her face and even bouncing a little. She was over doing it way too much. The elevator took a good 45 minutes to lift me to the ground floor and once there I walked my AC out the warehouse doors and found my truck parked nearby. I carefully lifted the truck in my ACs left hand and took to the air. It was dark outside but it wasn’t too late. Only 10:45 or so. I was surprised to find I could boost all the way to my secret warehouse in the closed section of the city and locked Kong inside. I was so excited to have my AC back that I couldn’t sleep if I had to. I got in my truck and drove to the Global Cortex garage and went into the shop in my Raven uniform. The shop clerk didn’t recognize me so I took this opportunity to buy a few new weapons for my Kong. I flipped through the catalogs and looked at the holographic displays for an hour and a half. I finally decided to buy three new parts. First was a support missile extension. It was supposed to be lighter than it’s predecessors and hold more missiles. The next was a new type of back mounted chain gun with a fairly low ammo price. It fires 25% faster and holds 500 rounds instead of 300. It is a little heavier than the older type but I know that Kong could easily handle it. The third part I bought was the missile launcher to go with my support missile extension part. It held 32 medium sized missiles that could be launched either vertically or horizontally. I think that I did pretty well for myself. I now had a powerful plasma weapon, a rapid fire weapon, and a missile launcher. I wanted to buy a MOONLIGHT blade as well, but once again, the shop was sold out. Well that and I couldn’t have afforded it anyway. I still have plenty of credits but I should save them in case I need them. I told the clerk to have the weapons loaded into the back of a nearby parts transporter plane. once the parts were loaded I used my employee key card to get into the cockpit of the small plane and I flew it back to my warehouse. Once everything was unloaded I locked it all in and flew back to the garage. I dropped off the plane and drove home in my truck happy and excited. to be continued I woke up the next morning in a very good mood. I sat down for breakfast and while eating my ham and egg sandwiches and milk, I had a brainstorm about how to become a legal Raven with the Global Cortex. I finished my third sandwich and got ready for work. I figured that my plan would take a good hour so I better make that hour an early one so there will be less people around to catch me. After my shower, I got in my truck and drove to work. The Garage was like a ghost town. It was only 4:00 in the morning and the only people on duty were the very small night shift. After making sure I wouldn’t be bothered by anybody, I walked into the Ravens rec. room and sat down at the computer terminal. I pulled up my employee file and erased it. As far as the Global Cortex computer systems are concerned, I never worked here. Next I hacked into the Global Cortex Raven files and spent the better part of 20 minutes creating a file for myself. The file was complete and perfectly legal with the Cortex and the Earth Government. My only problem now was the fact that I knew a lot of the employees here that could expose me and ruin the whole thing. That’s what my brain storming earlier was about. I decided that the only way to avoid the employees at this garage was to use a different one. It seems so simple now that I thought of it. I actually kicked myself for not thinking of it sooner. The file doesn’t require an address because a lot of Ravens don’t even have one. All I needed was a home city of operations. Well why not Corella City? It’s not as large as this one but I have always been a small town kinda guy anyway, and oh yeah, Trish lives there! Oh happy day. I typed Corella City into the file and finished it all up saying that I passed the Raven test here and then was transferred to Corella. That way if anybody went snooping I would have a little back ground story to tell them. It was all set, all I have to do now is move. I walked out into the hall and towards the garage. My asswipe of a supervisor walked up to me yelling as usual. “Damnit Kur, yer over half an hour late and time is money!” I hated when he said that. Sounded like an old movie or something. “You know, your right. I’m sorry, time is money, so I’ll do you a favor and never take your money again. I quit.” Boy that felt good, but I needed more. I needed to dance. I have no idea how to dance and would never attempt it... except for this moment. I did my best to jump around and do an Irish jig around my former supervisor while singing “I quit, I quit, I quit!” Oh what fun. The poor old fool could just stand there with a dumb look on his face. I continued dancing down the hall and out the door. I felt kinda silly now that I was outside so I stopped dancing and got in my truck. I drove home singing “I quit, I quit” along with whatever song was on the stereo at the time. I parked in my garage and took a look at my house. I’d only been living here for a month and out of that I have only spent maybe a dozen nights here. It was a pretty nice house, four rooms and a garage. It had a small gym and a pretty big back yard. I haven’t been here long but I kinda got attached, it was my dream house for as long as I can remember. Oh well, I’m moving closer to Trish and I dream more about her than some old house. I packed all of my stuff, well it wasn’t very much, into a single large aluminum crate out on my back lawn. I drove to my secret warehouse and got in the cockpit of Kong. I opened the crates holding my recently purchased parts and pulled the chain gun out. I carefully placed it over the left shoulder and locked it into place. I repeated this process with the missile launcher and the missile extensions on the shoulders. Kong’s computer detected and confirmed that all of the new parts were fully functional and battle ready. I picked up the KARASAWA and latched it to the hitch on the outer thigh of Kong’s right leg. I then carefully picked up my truck in the right hand and walked outside. I boosted into the air and headed for my house. it was kinda funny watching people in my neighborhood running into their houses thinking they were under attack. I resisted the urge to fire over their heads and instead, landed in my back yard. I picked up the aluminum crate in my ACs left hand and took to the air again. This time I headed for Corella City. I figured the trip would take about 2 hours because I had to land and walk every few minutes to let my generator recharge the capacitors. I was passing through the snow covered grasslands along the huge river that divides the eastern and western sides of the continent. I was getting hungry so I stopped for dinner along the bank of the frozen river. The sun was just about to set and it would be dark in about 30 minutes. It was pretty cold out in the wilderness. The cities under ground tunnels and sewers also serve as a heating system so it never gets below 40 degrees there. I figured it must have been close to zero or maybe even below zero out here. I ate the food I brought cold and got back in the warmth of my ACs cockpit. I just started to fly again when Kong decided to talk to me. “AC Angel Impact located, three kilometers to the north.” “What do you know about the Raven that pilots that AC?” “Angel Impact is piloted by Archangel, a Raven that is dedicated to Mirage.” “That’s it? Nothing else?” “That is all of the information I have at this time Kur.” Well I had to go north and I am sure that by now he would have detected me. I continued on my path and kept myself ready in case this Archangel guy decided he didn’t like me. Huh, Archangel, Angel Impact, probably one of those nutso religious types like the guys in the forest. “Hello Raven, I am guessing you are new to our ranks. My ACs computer has no record of your AC.” “Oh yeah, well, I just became a Raven a few days ago. My name is Kur, and my AC is called Kong.” Well he sounded nice enough so far. I could just make out his AC from the horizon. It was mostly white and looked like it had some gold or yellow on it’s head and left arm. As the AC approached I could see that it was a strange looking mix of parts. The head and legs were both heavyweights but the core was about as light a core as you can get and the arms were middleweight types. I could see why the AC had a light core however as it was loaded to the gills with high power weapons. I could see a TITAN missile launcher on the right back and a medium sized grenade launcher on the left. The arms were loaded up with a bazooka and the MOONLIGHT blade. Jeez everybody had one of those except for me. I imagine he must be a good pilot to make enough money on missions to pay for ammo and still have enough left over for profit. “Hey is that the new 500 round chain gun I see on your back? I didn’t know it was even out yet.” I just hoped he didn’t like it enough to try and steal it from me. “Yeah I just bought it yesterday, haven’t had a chance to test it out yet.” “I could have used one of those on my last mission. Had lots of little MTs running around that I didn’t want to waste this big ammo on. You know, I was just on my way to Corella city, I noticed you were heading that way too, maybe we should travel tog.....” I only heard a loud explosion after that. I looked around and found the Angel Impact AC fighting with another heavy AC equipped with radar jammers. “Visual confirmation, AC Gun Smoke is engaged in battle with AC Angel Impact.” “Kong, what do you know about the pilot of Gun Smoke?” “The pilots name is Sharpshooter. He is ranked A-9 in the arena and works primarily for Crest when he does missions.” I took a look at the aggressive heavy AC to see what Archangel was up against. It had a lighter set of heavy legs than Angel Impact but had a heavier core and arms for more armor. It was painted light brown with white bands and ovals all over, it kinda reminded me of a big cow. It’s only weapons were a sniper rifle, a plasma blade similar to mine, and a high powered grenade launcher.