I climbed out of my cockpit and walked down my platform and down the stairs 
to the floor.  I looked up and watched Trish get out of her AC.  She ran down 
the stair of her platform and stood next to me.  “Oh wow hey Kur, it’s so 
good to see you!  Oh you have got to see this guy in action.”  “Huh?  What 
guy?”  “The guy that pilots this big green AC!  He should be coming out any 
minute now!”  Now this was funny, she had no idea I was the pilot of that AC. 
 “Where is he?  Hey, excuse me Marcus?”  She was waving at the mechanic to 
come over.  “Hey Marcus, who pilots this AC?”  Marcus just looked at her for 
a minute then pointed at me.  “He does.”  And walked away.  Trish looked at 
me all wide eyed and dropped her jaw.  “That was you?  You dork you couldn’t 
tell me it was you in there?”  She socked me in the shoulder and then gave me 
a hug.  “Sorry”  It was all I could think to say.  “well it looks like we 
have a lot to talk about don’t we?  Come on, let’s get started.”  We walked 
out of the garage and I almost forgot to tell Marcus that I’d be doing my own 
repairs again, but I caught him before we got to the door.  We walked up to 
my dorm room and Trish started asking questions.

to be continued

    “So?”  “So what?”  “What do you think?  Tell me everything!”  “There’s 
not much to tell.”  “Oh come on Kur, there is plenty to tell, for instance, 
how does an AC mechanic become a Raven at 22 years old when the law requires 
all Ravens to be 23 with five years of battle MT experience?”  “Oh that.  
Well...”  “And how does that under age Raven end up with a heavy AC that 
moves like an ultra light?”  “Well that’s a little complicated...”  “And why 
didn’t that Raven tell me all of this earlier?”  She was too smart for my own 
good.  In the last 20 seconds she has blown my cover and probably figured out 
what I had done even before she asked.  God I love her.  “You know that if 
you get caught, the government could have you executed right?”  “Well then 
I’ll have to not get caught.”  A big smile crossed her face and she walked 
closer to me and put her arms around my neck.  She stared into my eyes and 
pulled my head down closer to hers.  I waited for out lips to meet but she 
turned her head at the last second and whispered into my ear.  “I won’t 
tell.”  Then she giggled and walked into my kitchen.

    Trish opened my refrigerator and pulled out a gallon of milk, it was all 
I had in there anyway, and poured two glasses.  “So, are you going to tell me 
the details or do I have to tie you up and torture them out of you?”  To tell 
the truth, option two kind of excited me.  “All right all right, I’ll talk.”  
She handed me a glass of milk and we sat at the dinning table while I told 
her the whole story about how I picked up the damaged AC and how I fixed it 
and my encounters with Stephanie who I renamed Steven when I told Trish, and 
all of the things that have happened since then.  “Wow, artificial muscle.  
No wonder you wanted to do your own repairs.  I wouldn’t have believed any of 
this story if I hadn’t seen you out there on the battle field.”  “Yeah, now 
that I have actually listened to myself tell the story, it all sounds so 
surreal.  Like I’m dreaming the whole thing up or something.”  Neither one of 
us said anything for a couple of minutes after that.  I guess she was just 
soaking in the information I told her and I was settling with the fact that 
somebody else knows my secret now.  

    Eventually Trish broke the silence. “I just got a great idea.  You should 
use me as a partner on your missions!  It would be so cool.  I could equip my 
AC with a sniper rifle or a long range cannon and pick of enemies from far 
away while you do your thing up close.  I just have to see you in action 
again.”  “I don’t know Trish, it sounds like a good plan in theory, but so 
far nothing I do goes according to plan.”  “Oh you don’t have to worry about 
me, as long as I’m not being gang banged by three tanks, I can hold my own.”  
What she just said put a mental image in my mind that I found hilarious and I 
tried to stifle a laugh but a little broke through and I chuckled under my 
breath.  “What’s so funny?  You don’t think I am a good pilot do you?”  “Oh 
no, it’s not that, you are a great pilot, it’s just that I was thinking how 
scary a sniper AC named ‘Candy’ would be to a veteran Raven.”  Good save Kur. 
 “Yeah well, I know it’s a girlie name but I like it, and it lulls my 
opponents into thinking I am just some cutsie little girl so I can surprise 
them with my magnificent fighting style.”  This time both of us laughed.  
“Well what ever works for you.  I don’t know though, I’ll think about you 
being my escort, it might be fun.”  Now she laughed.  “I think you meant 
consort.”  I didn’t get it until later that night.

    After I told her the details of the Raven meeting earlier that day, Trish 
gave me a kiss on the cheek and left my dorm room to go home.  I decided to 
let Kong wait on the repairs until after I had a shower and checked my mail.  

    I had quite a few letters in my e-mail in box, several were just junk but 
one was from Crest to congratulate me again for completing the mission.  
Another was from the Global Cortex main office.  Crap, what if they found me 
out?  This better not be what I think it might be.  I clicked the icon and to 
my relief it was an invitation to the annual Ravens festival in the park down 
town.  Every year the Cortex gathers a bunch of Ravens to hang out with the 
fans and let them try to defeat their favorite Ravens in AC simulators.  or 
more accurately, big boxes on hydraulic lifts that have an AC cockpit inside 
of them.  My mother took me to one of the festivals when I was three.  I was 
still to young to really do anything except the zero gravity chamber.  That 
was the day that my mother met my step father and ruined my life, well in my 
opinion anyway.  

    I decided to accept the invitation and told the Cortex that I would be 
happy to be one of the Ravens who participates in the exhibition arena match. 
 Not many Ravens want to compete in an exhibition because they have to pay 
for ammo and repairs themselves.  After I checked the rest of my mail I 
walked back to the Garage to start work on the repairs to my AC.  

    The huge dent in the left leg was the hardest to fix.  The crack in the 
chest was just a simple welding and straitening job, but that dent in the leg 
took forever.  I had to use my AC as a construction MT because even the 
strongest MT the garage had couldn’t pound the dent out of the heavy armor.  
Eventually I got the AC repaired and had Marcus reload my weapons and buff 
the paint.  All in all the repairs and ammo cost me 13,152 credits, leaving 
me with 41,848 credits profit on the mission.  My account was well over 
150,000 cr. now and was expecting another 200,000 as soon as my old “new” 
house sold.  I had plenty of money to blow at the parts convention at the 
arena.  If the parts there were as cheap as William said they were, I might 
be able to buy another whole AC!  Or at least be able to finally find a 
MOONLIGHT blade.  

    The repairs were finally done and I had a few hours to blow before I went 
to bed so I drove around town looking for a house I might want to buy and get 
out of that cramped up dorm room.  Well it wasn’t really cramped, it was 
twice the size of the house I had before I was a Raven.  Wow, soon to be 
three houses in the last two months.  My life is changing fast, I should slow 
down a little bit.  Before I know it I’ll be transferring to Mars or some 
other foolish place.  

    The houses were all about the same, large, three or four bedroom deals 
with massive back yards and swimming pools.  They were all in great shape but 
there was just something I didn’t like about them.  Maybe I’ll ask Trish 
where she lives and move close to her.  It seems like everything I do, is for 
her now days.  At first, I was doing all of this so that I could have a 
better life, but now that I met Trish, I have been doing everything to be 
closer to her, to make her happy.  I’m even going to let her be a consort on 
my missions just because she wants to.  I know I told her I’d think about it, 
but to tell the truth, I had all ready said yes in my mind.  There is a word 
for guys like me, I think it is pussy whipped.  I can live with that.

    I drove back to the Cortex and climbed into bed.  I was pretty tired so I 
fell asleep with in a couple of hours, witch was pretty good for me.  I woke 
up suddenly and could feel my heart racing.  I checked the time, 3:34 a.m.  I 
didn’t know what was going on, I wasn’t having a nightmare or anything, but 
my heart was beating quickly and I was breathing heavily.  Then I heard my 
door being opened slowly.  I got out of bed and ran behind the wall 
separating the bedroom from the living room.  I waited there until a figure 
wearing all black and a mask of some kind walked into the bed room right in 
front of me.  Then another and another walked in after the first.  One of 
them turned and saw me then lifted his arm.  Even though it was dark, I could 
plainly see a .44 magnum in the mans hand.  I quickly ducked just before the 
man fired and then grabbed his hand and brought my other hand up sharply, 
breaking the mans elbow backwards.  He began to scream and dropped his weapon 
as the other two men lifted similar guns and started to fire at me.  I ran to 
the side narrowly avoiding the bullets and put my foot on the wall in front 
of me and kicked myself forward into the two men.  I managed to kick the gun 
out of the hand of one of them but the other saw me coming and side stepped 
my attack, firing a shot in the process.  The bullet grazed my forearm and 
then hit the wall behind me.  By now the man with the broken arm picked up 
his gun with his left hand and fired three quick shots at me but his aim was 
way off with his left hand and all three shots missed.  I grabbed the man 
who’s gun I kicked in a bear hug and picked him up and pivoted on my right 
foot to put him between myself and the other two.

    The other two men stopped firing and lowered their guns.  “What do you 
think you are going to do Kur?  you have nowhere to go.  As soon as you let 
him go, we are going to kill you.”  I recognized this mans voice, after all I 
only heard it a few hours ago.  “I doubt it, if you shoot a hand gun the same 
way you pilot an AC, I could just walk out of here without taking a shot.”  
He pulled his mask off and raised his gun again.  “So you remember my voice 
huh?  Well good.  I told you I was going to hunt you down man.  I told you I 
was going to kill you!  And now you can take the sound of my laughter all the 
way to hell once I put a bullet through your head!”  He took a step closer to 
me pointing the gun right at me like his friend wasn’t even there between us. 
 I lifted my right hand to my captives throat and dug my fingers in behind 
his adams apple, ready to rip his throat out at any moment.  “One more step 
and your friend leaves here minus a wind pipe.  The man was starting to cough 
and choke from my grip but I didn’t let up.  “You wouldn’t dare.”  The 
unmasked man took another step closer and was now just a few feet from me.  I 
squeezed the mans throat a little harder and just like I knew he would, he 
threw up all over the other two men.  This was the distraction I needed.  I 
pushed the puking man into the Raven and leap frogged over both of them and 
broke the other mans left arm in much the same way I broke his right.  He 
screamed again and I easily took the gun from his hand and turned around 
aiming at the unmasked assailants head.  He slowly got up and dropped his 
gun.  “You could have just accepted your defeat like a man and moved on.  But 
you had to get your revenge.”  “Come on man, don’t kill me.  I swear, I’ll 
leave you alone man I swear it!”  I could see tears running down his face now 
and he was backing away from me.  “Too late for that don’t you think?”  
“No!!!”  He screamed just before I shot him and his friend in the knee cap.

    Apparently one of the Ravens in the same hall as me alerted the Cortex 
security and the three men were hauled off to a prison hospital.  There was 
such overwhelming evidence all over the place that the police concluded a 
trial was not necessary and the men were all sentenced to 20 years for the 
attempted assassination of a Raven not participating in a mission or arena 
match.  I guess that means it’s ok to kill me if I’m working at the time.  It 
was a little past 6:00 a.m. before the police left and I got back to bed.  I 
was woken up again by the janitor repairing the lock on my door.  It was 
11:45 so I decided to just stay awake and try to enjoy the day.  I ate some 
breakfast and got in the shower.  I was just relaxing under the hot spray, 
almost asleep, when I heard a voice yelling “Oh my God!” that brought me out 
of my stupor.  I looked over and saw Trish running out of the bathroom.  Oh 
man, she saw me naked.  I didn’t know what was worse, that she saw me naked, 
or that I didn’t get to see her naked.

    I quickly dried myself off and wrapped a towel around my waist.  I walked 
out of the bathroom and saw Trish sitting at the dinning table.  “Oh my God, 
I’m sorry Kur, I didn’t know these places had clear glass shower doors.  I’m 
so sorry.”  “It’s ok, honest mistake.  That’s all.  Well, what did you want 
anyway?”  “Oh, well.... I don’t even know anymore.”  She giggled a little and 
put her hand over her face in embarrassment.  “Why don’t you think about it 
while I get dressed ok?”  She just nodded her head so I walked into my bed 
room and put some clothes on.  “I remember now.  I was going to ask you what 
happened here last night.  It looks like you had a party that got out of 
control.”  She was looking around the place and saw the blood stains on the 
carpet and holes in the wall.  “Oh my God, are these bullet holes?”  I told 
her what happened earlier that morning and she hugged me tightly for a few 
minutes.  “You better watch yourself Kur.  If you get yourself hurt I’ll kill 
you.”  She wiped her eyes on my shirt and gave me a kiss, on the lips this 
time.  And we walked out to the rec. room together.

    We walked into the rec. room and saw a few Ravens sitting at a table 
talking to each other.  Trish knew them a little and wanted to introduce me.  
“Kur, this is Eclipse, and Timerlane.  They are some of the best C ranked 
Ravens in the arena.  Guys, this is Kur.  He’s a newbie but has some moves 
you wouldn’t believe.”  I shook hands with the two men, Eclipse was a few 
inches shorter than me but had a strong handshake.  He had dark brown hair 
and hazel eyes, and looked to be in his mid twenties.  “Good moves huh?  Is 
she talkin about on the battle field or in bed?”  Trish blushed deep red and 
I imagine I did to.  But it was kinda funny.  “You joke too much Eclipse.”  
That was Timerlane, he seemed a little more serious than Eclipse but you 
could tell he was laughing on the inside.  He was built a little heavier than 
the other guy but was about the same height.  I thought maybe he had a little 
Asian decent in him but I didn’t care enough to ask.  When I finished shaking 
Timerlanes hand, Eclipse spoke up again.  “Well, it’s been nice meeting you 
but We have a mission to go on.  Maybe we’ll see you later.”  Eclipse turned 
and walked out of the room and turned back, “Are you coming or what 
Timerlane?”  “Good bye Trish, Kur, I’ll see you later.”  As Timerlane walked 
out the door behind Eclipse, Trish introduced me to a few other Ravens and we 
sat down to watch some TV.  

    Me and Trish decided not to take any missions until after the parts 
convention, so we spent the next day together.  Trish wanted to go to the 
mall and although I wasn’t one for shopping, I happily went with her.  By the 
end of the day, Trish had spent nearly 1,200 credits on shoes, clothes, 
perfume, and jewelry.  I spent 16 credits on our lunch.  I drove her home and 
found out where she lived.  It turns out that her father paid for half her 
house, witch was more like a mansion.  It even had a garage large enough to 
hold three ACs and the MTs used to repair them.  She told me that she only 
used the garage for storage and had several extra parts inside, including 
different types of heads, arms, legs, and weapons.  A few other key parts and 
she would have four complete ACs.  

    I walked Trish to her door and gave her a good night kiss.  “I’d invite 
you in, but my daddy is visiting and he doesn’t like anybody I date.”  “I’d 
be the same way if I had a daughter as beautiful as you.”  “Oh shut up.”  She 
laughed and walked into her house and blew me a kiss before she shut the 
door.  Ha!, she said she was dating me.  She can’t take it back, I heard it 
loud and clear.  I drove back to the Cortex and tried to get some sleep, but 
it was only midnight and I wasn’t even close to tired.  So I just laid there, 
thinking about Trish and dreaming up all kinds of super powerful parts and 
weapons I was going to buy tomorrow at the parts convention.

to be continued  

there are going to be some parts from my own imagination coming up so read on!

    I woke up early, around 3:30 a.m.  I quickly showered, got dressed, and 
ate breakfast.  I checked my e-mail and found a message from my real estate 
agent.  If this message said what I thought it said I was going to be very 
happy.  I clicked the message and read: “Hello Kur, this is Kenneth Hopp, 
your real estate agent.  It took me all day but I talked a young family into 
buying your house.  And get this, they offered 250,000 before I told them 
your asking price, I swear, some people are born suckers.  If the husband 
wasn’t from old money, he’d be broke.  Anyway, the money will be in your 
account by noon tomorrow!  Have a great day!”  

    Great!  That means that I am going to have another quarter million 
credits if I need them at the show today.  I made it out of my house by 4:15 
and drove to the Global Cortex to get my AC.  I met Trish inside along with 
over 90 other Ravens who were eager to get to the show early.  Trish and I 
got into our ACs and we traveled together to the arena and parked our ACs in 
the battle arena next to the 15 or so ACs already there.  We made our way to 
the show room and we were both amazed by what we saw.  

    There were 18 corporations on display and each had their own display area 
about 10 acres in size.  It was amazing.  There were AC parts everywhere, New 
parts nobody has seen before, revisions on part that already exist, and 
displays of parts that haven’t been used in hundreds of years.  We walked to 
the nearest corporation and it turned out to be Kisaragi.  Hello Ravens, 
welcome to the Kisaragi display, we have over 150 parts here for your 
personal examination.”  It was a beautiful young woman who was obviously 
trained how to react to people and hawk her companies wares.  We started 
walking around and Trish found a huge extension part attached to a fake AC.  
“Oh wow Kur, look at that!  They are beautiful!”  They were huge wing looking 
parts that were folded back like a bird holds it’s wings, and they still hung 
almost to the ground.  We walked closer and found a computer console that 
describes the part in detail.  

    Inside each of the wings are a generator and radiator along with twin jet 
engines supplying a total of 500,000 lb./ft of thrust.  The wings also have a 
payload of 75 small, and 50 medium missiles, able to be fired in groups of 
10.  And when needed the wings can be folded in front of the AC to be used as 
a shield.  The whole set up was extremely heavy so only a heavyweight AC 
could equip other weapons with the wings, and I would imagine that not many 
Ravens would purchase the part with a 2,333,000 credit price tag.

    We continued walking through the Kisaragi display and found a few new FCS 
parts that looked promising and an interesting solid shell rifle.  It was a 
very heavy but small rifle that shot low speed bullets that attached 
themselves to the armor of an enemy.  The bullets then deployed a small 
robotic MT about the size of a rat that finds it’s way inside the enemy and 
tears it apart from the inside out.  After walking around for a few more 
minutes at Kisaragi we decided to check out another corporations display and 
maybe come back later.

    We walked over to the Crest area and found a large display of cores, 
arms, legs, and heads.  One core in particular caught my interest.  It was a 
huge OB type core with heavy armor, four anti missile laser cannons, and most 
amazing of all, four spots for arm attachments.  I could picture a four armed 
AC rushing into combat with guns blazing.  The over boost on the core had a 
thrust twice as powerful as earlier model cores, meaning it was meant to hold 
a lot of weight.  The only problem is that the core was so heavy and having 
four arms would only add more weight, so unless Crest has some new leg parts 
that can hold all that weight, the core is pretty useless.  We left the core 
and found the legs to go with it.  They came in two versions, one a tank, and 
one a huge biped.  The load capacity of both was rated 14,000.  That would be 
enough weight to hold the core, arms, and weapons, with maybe a little to 
spare.  But for every strength, there is a weakness.  The moving ability is 
horrible, less than half of even the heaviest previous legs.

    We moved over to the Crest weapons display and found some interesting 
energy weapons.  One was a back mounted energy machine gun that fires 1,200 
shots per minute, and has an energy supply of 10,000 shots.  Another was a 
competitor for the KARASAWA weapon called ENG-DESTROYER.  It was a little 
lighter than my SAWA but just as strong, it’s fire rate was a little slower 
though.  Next was an extension that fires a medium strength plasma bolt every 
time an energy weapon on the AC fires, kinda like a support missile 
extension.  I thought I might try it out on my AC and maybe buy it, it was 
one sale for only 34,000 credits.  We left the Crest area and walked to the 
next corporation.

    By now, the show room was full of Ravens from earth and Mars, even a few 
from the moon.  We were beginning to have a hard time walking through the 
crowds.  “Kur!,  Kur!  Is that you?”  I heard a woman’s voice yelling for me 
but I didn’t see the source anywhere.  I turned around and looked down, there 
right in front of me, was a beautiful woman dressed in a black suit and dark 
hair pulled back into a pony tail.  I was so surprised to see Stephanie 
standing six inches from me that I just stood there with my mouth open.  
“Well Kur, fancy meeting you here.”  “Kur?  Who is this woman?”  Trish was 
next to me holding my arm in one hand, and her other arm around my waist.  I 
leaned over and whispered in her ear, “It’s Steven.”  She whispered back, 
“You mean the Steven that built your AC?”  “Hello Stephanie.  I guess this is 
your companies display area?”  “Yes it is, and if you would accept my offer, 
I could give you some free parts?”  Stephanie was playing little miss sexy as 
best she could, and if Trish wasn’t there, I’d be drooling on myself.  Steph 
was standing with her weight on one leg and the other slightly bent, so that 
her skirt was riding up a little bit.  She was gently swaying her hips and 
chewing on her finger, looking like a naughty school girl.  I could feel 
Trish’s muscles tensing and she began digging her finger nails into my arm.  

    Steph was all but ignoring Trish until Trish put her hand out and 
introduced herself.  “Hi, I’m Kurs girlfriend.  Can I ask how you two know 
each other?”  Stephanie got a look in her eye I’ve seen before and I almost 
knew what was coming.  “Oh!  Kur didn’t tell you about me?  We go way back.  
Kur and I have had lots of... fun, together, haven’t we Kur.”  I was at a 
loss for words.  I always promised myself I’d never hit a woman but this 
bitch was pushing her luck.  “So Kur, what do you say?  Will you accept my 
offer?”  Steph reached up and put her arms around my neck and started to 
stand on her toes for a kiss.  I was about to pull away when a blur crossed 
my peripheral vision.  The next thing I knew, Stephanie was lying on her back 
with a bloody nose and Trish was standing over her with blood on her right 
hand.  Stephanie stood back up and wiped her nose looking at the blood on her 
hand.  “You bitch!”  She charged at Trish, but Trish knew just what to do and 
planted her foot in Stephanie’s gut while grabbing her behind her neck.  
Trish fell backwards with Stephanie’s momentum and rolled onto her back using 
her foot to throw Steph through the air.  Steph landed hard on her back about 
10 feet away and slowly got up.  

    Truth be told, it was the hottest thing I had ever seen and I had never 
been more turned on in my life, but I couldn’t let them continue fighting.  
They both rushed at each other but I got in between them and held them apart. 
 “You slut, don’t you ever touch him again!”  Trish was furious, she was 
trying her hardest to get around me but I held her back.. somehow.  By now, 
Steph’s body guards came in and grabbed her, pulling her away from me and 
Trish.  After a few seconds both girls calmed down and stopped trying to kill 
each other.  “Look Kur, I don’t know what her problem is, but my offer still 
stands.  You work for me, and you can have any three parts here for free.  
Trust me, I can make you a very rich man, a very powerful man.”  Steph turned 
and walked away holding her head back and holding a tissue to her nose.  I 
turned around and saw Trish standing there with her fists clenched and her 
face turning red.

    “Ok Trish, we need to talk.”  “Your damn right we do, come on Kur.”  She 
grabbed my hand and pulled me to the rest area, the only area with nobody 
around.  We sat at a table and she got right to the point.  “Who was that 
slut and why was she about to dry hump you?”  “She owns the corporation that 
upgraded my AC.  She wants me to do missions for her now but I don’t think I 
want to.  She is about one step above pure evil.”  “And all that stuff about 
you and her going way back and having ‘fun’ together?”  “It was a complete 
lie.  I’ve only known her for a few weeks, and for most of that time, I was 
risking my life on her impossible missions, and fighting her oversized death 
machines.  As far as I’m concerned, she can dig a hole and die falling into 
it.”  “Really?”  “Yeah, I was almost thinking about working a few missions 
for her, but after what she just pulled, not a chance.  I don’t care how many 
free parts she wants to give me.”  Trish smiled and leaned over the table and 
gave me a long kiss.  We got up and walked back out into the show room.  

    Our next corporation display was Mirage.  A large corporation known for 
their sleek and powerful parts.  Trish was very excited to see this display.  
We walked through the basic parts and soon found ourselves surrounded by some 
of the newest, most advanced AC parts out there.  We were running from part 
to part reading everything we could about them and trying to decide weather 
or not we should by it.  We were looking at a sleek pair of lightweight legs 
Trish was interested in when out of the corner of my eye I saw something very 
familiar.  It was another fake AC statue but it had an extension part on it 
that looked like a sharks fins.  It was the extension part that that AC from 
the mountains was using on me.  I told Trish about it and we walked over to 
the display.  “Those are the weapons that don’t have any projectiles?”  
“Yeah.  Nothing comes out of them but they cause a huge explosion where ever 
the pilot wants.”  We both looked down at the computer in front of the 
display and began reading.