Armored Core: Mutare Ad Custodiam

by Zeroraid

1

Out of all the things he’d seen on the battlefields of this war torn system… none of them compared to the AC; the Armored Core. These towering giants of cold steel, there are times when these man made apparitions seemed more like a natural disaster than anything that could be molded by human hands.

To be fair, perhaps they were, in their own way.

Ask anyone and they’d likely admit that there was something uncanny about these iron colossi; something that didn’t seem human, rather simply something that had been forced into a human-like shape, and try as it may, it could not accurately emulate what a person of flesh and blood was capable of.

Their movements weren’t jerky or unnatural, or anything along those lines; rather they were far too precise and smooth - not in the way that a human would move, rather a machine of sorts copying the movements.

Smooth as movements were, they were also noisy, countless tons of metal and circuitry moving together in perfect harmony, creating this… ‘noise’ you couldn’t accurately describe or explain to others, but at the same time it was something you’d never forget.

When they awoke, they’re ‘eyes’ glowed like some distant fire in the night, burning in a way that alerted people to their presence.

Their ‘skin’ - their chassis was cold, layers upon layers of refined iron draped over them like clothing, and the colors that paint the steel are often faded and scarred from the injuries they had shrugged off in battle.

Armored Cores… truthfully these traits that they shared made one question if there really was a person inside them or if it was just a hollowed hunk of metal born with the singular purpose of bringing conflict.

Every Armored Core gave off this impression, it was something they wore like a badge of honor.

This one was no different.

Staring up at their personal Armored Core, the young man, a Raven as the world liked to call his people, leaned over the railing and continued chewing on the rations bar that he had picked up earlier. 

Not gotta lie, it… wasn’t the best. The bar hadn’t expired or anything, but it could taste better. A lot better. But, as some might say, ‘you have to work with what you got’.

So he did; he ate what was available to him and used it to fill up his belly.

Again, as some say, ‘you can’t work on an empty stomach’.

And he’d definitely be working soon.

Till then though, he was just going to be here, on stand by and watching over his machine.

Now, he’d admit to anyone who bothered bringing it up, his machine wasn’t that pretty; but to be fair it didn’t have to be. So long as he could make it work, and do what he needed it to do for his work, he was fine with however it looked.

Besides, he couldn’t really complain about how his machine looked in the first place, after all he was the reason it looked this way to begin with.

His unit, the Obelisk as he named it, was a bipedal-type somewhere in the mid-weight class. Its armor was tough but not overly so; it was fast but not to the point of being impossible to track. The same could be said for the rest of its parameters. As such it was an ‘All-rounder’; it didn’t really specialize in anything, but at the same time it didn’t really have any faults. It was simple that way, and it left plenty of room for improvements.

“Hey kid!” The Raven turned his head, attention turning to see that an older man was walking up to him. Another Raven, One that was a bit unshaven took a minute to bounce his helmet between his hands as he approached. “I had a feeling I’d find you here.” Blue Eyes looked away as the younger of the two shrugged and looked back at his unit.

“Well, where else would I be?”

“Good question.” The older of the two made this humming noise as he turned to look at the machine before them. “It’s quiet.” He noted. “The repairs done already?”

“Seems like it.” The younger Raven admitted. “When I came down to check on their progress, I saw they were already wrapping things up.” He admitted before munching on his food bar. “They worked fast.” He grumbled. “Not surprised though, easy to get your hands on the parts needed.”

“I guess we can thank you for that, there’s nothing too crazy to put behind your build.” The older  of the two admitted.

“Right.” The younger muttered as he took another bite from his bar. “Thanks by the way.” He muttered, looking at his elder. “For fitting the bill I mean. Coam’s been tight these past few weeks.”

“Don’t mention it.” His elder stated as he put a hand on his hip. “I figured you could use the cash, plus I wanted a hand for this job.”

“Right.” The younger of the two stated as he took another bite of his food bar as his counterpart glanced at him.

“How many of those have you eaten already?”

“Third one.”

“Better slow down, don’t want you getting a stomach ache after all.” The elder of the two smirked as he hoisted his helmet over his shoulder and looked back at the AC. “Either way, since your machine’s all patched up, let’s get ready to go. Our transport is almost ready to go.”

“Right.” The younger of the two muttered as he stood upright and started heading towards his machine.

Walking across the hanger’s bridge, the pilot took a minute to finish his rations bar tuck the wrapper into his pocket before pulling at the cockpit hatch and opening it up.

‘It’s a bit stuffy in here .’ He notes, crawling into the cockpit as he grabs the helmet he had a bad habit of leaving in here.

The AC is cold outside and it’s stuffy inside the cockpit. Then again when you don’t vent the cockpit that often it’s no surprise that it gets a bit stuffy in here at times.

Have to remember to leave the hatch open when he gets back.

If he gets back.

Fastening his helmet, the pilot strapped himself into the cockpit as he started flipping switches to power on his AC before sealing the cockpit hatch.

Everything online, the pilot took a moment to breathe as he rolled his shoulders.

He smiled slightly at the greeting. “Morning buddy, enjoy your nap?”

Location:??

Nauseous.

That was the first thought that crossed Sunset’s mind as she found herself spit out from the other side of the mirror portal. With a groan she couldn’t help rub her forehead, annoyance on her face as she tried to will her headache away. “Ugh~” The young equestrian thought as she took a moment, her vision slowly resetting itself as she leaned back, only for the back of her forehead to feel like it was being submerged in water. “Right…” She muttered, leaning forward. “The portal…” She reminded herself as she lowered her hoof, taking the time to press down on the bridge of her muzzle as she sucked in a breath.

That last fact alone however, resulted in her starting to panic.

"My horn!" She started patting her head, trying to find out where it had disappeared to. "Where's my horn!?" Sunset continued feeling around her head for her missing appendage.

This was bad. This was very bad. A unicorn’s horn was sacred to say the least. While it wasn’t the source of their arcane powers, their horn allowed them to focus their magic so that they could cast spells. And naturally it was proof that one was a unicorn.

“But you're not a unicorn right now.” The former mare muttered in realization as she started to calm herself down. “You’re a… I have no idea what you are, but you’re not a unicorn anymore.” She told herself as she took a few more breaths and went back to looking at her hands. “That leaves the question though, what are you?” The former equestrian muttered as she fiddled her digits - her fingers if her anatomy classes on Minotaur were right. As soon as she was done playing around with her fingers she got to her feet, first on all fours like she was used to and then slowly shifted to balance to stand on just two. She stumbled for a moment and used the statue she was next to to catch herself. She nearly cursed Discord when her hand touched the portal  she had come through, but to her surprise the gateway to Equestria was harder than stone, that meant that the portal had finished closing, so turning back to return to Equestria was out of the question.

Not that she had a real reason to go back anyway…

Pushing herself off the mirror Sunset stumbled, struggling to hold herself up before finding her balance. “This is going to take a minute to get used to…” She grumbled as she turned her attention to finally take a look at her surroundings.

What she saw was ruin.

Broken streets and silent steel carriages rested beyond her line of vision. Grass was climbing out of the cracks, and buildings were in disrepair. The portal she’d come through was connected to this statue with a broken Equestrian on top of it.

“Ok, this is not what I was expecting.” She grumbled as she looked around further, her attention turning to the sky as she noticed that it was somewhat hazy, leaving her unable to see the sun hovering overhead. Sunset just narrowed her eyes for a moment and got off the floor as she started walking around.

Walking on all fours like she used to felt uncomfortable to say the least, so she tried another way; getting up to stand in a manner similar to a minotaur and attempting to imitate their walking style. It was rough to say the least, her sense of balance was completely off and she needed to steady herself a few times but she got it after a few minutes of practice.

Her new walking cycle wasn’t perfect, but at least she could get around.

Walking through the city, the former mare took in the sights around her. “It’s so quiet…” She muttered to herself as she continued walking. “What in Equestria happened here?” She didn’t receive an answer, let alone an echo directed back at her. Still, she frowned, crossing her front hooves - her arms - as she kept letting her gaze wander.

This world… it wasn’t what she had been expecting. When she entered the portal not that long ago, she did it with the intention of going somewhere that could lead her to her destiny.

The same one that Princess Celestia had denied her.

“But how can I become an alicorn in a world reduced to ruin?” Again she found no answer directed at her. Instead her attention was quickly drawn towards a noise. One that she admittingly found familiar, chatter. Still walking towards it, the young mare couldn’t help a bit uneasy for some reason, but she chalked it up to the fact that she was currently in a city and a body that she wasn’t familiar with. “Take it slow…” She told herself as she moved towards the noise. “Figure things out and you’ll do fine.” She muttered as she walked forward and eventually reached the location where all the voices were coming from. There were people that had the same form she currently took, many of them were sitting on the ground while others were in a line of sorts getting food from what seemed to be a couple food stalls. Her attention turned to the attire present on those that were offering food… looked uniform, so military? That was the guess she was making anyway. She turned her attention elsewhere and… “What in Tartarus is that?”

It might seem strange to some; but he always got the shakes whenever he got sent out in his AC.

Who was he kidding, of course it seemed a little strange; after doing this so many times already, one would think he’d gotten over these shakes by now.

He’d used to have the psychiatrist monitor his brain-waves before every job he did, and they’d ask him those silly, routine questions. They’d tell him whatever was getting to him wasn’t fear - wasn’t anything remotely important — just the trembling of an eager race horse at the starting gate. Much as he hated that old pun or stereotype or whatever it was, he honestly wasn’t too sure about that.

Still, he found some truth in those worlds, there was some eagerness, but more than anything he was scared out of his mind.

Right now was no exception.

The older of the two pilots asked over comms and just received this nod he couldn’t actually see since they were audio only. “I’m fine.” The younger pilot muttered before taking a breath. “Let’s get started.” Staring out at the outskirts that eventually gave way to a city. “Gotta say, I never thought I’d be back here.”

Canterlot; it was this city out here, almost literally in the middle of nowhere, with only one road leading both into and out of it. If there really was a god out there, only they knew why someone would build a city all the way out here in the sticks. The city had seen better days, that was for sure, but that didn’t really bother them.

Boosters flared to life, the roar hitting the air so loud that it almost drowned out everything else in the vicinity.

One second the Armored Cores, Obelisk and Wrangler were standing still, the next they were by all means flying, darting across the landscape with speeds that do doubt surpassed a bullet.

Disbelief gave way to fear, and fear gave way to ‘oh shit, what the fuck is that noise’.

Doubling over at what she could only describe as a warning bell going off, but it was far too loud and it continued on for far too long. Ironically though, Sunset found whatever that noise was to be tame when compared to what it felt like a few seconds later. Honestly, she didn’t know what to call it, or what to accurately compare it to outside of the wind tearing itself apart.

“What in tartarus is going on!?”

She barely heard her own voice as she covered her ears, dropping to her knees and almost doubled over. A second later though she did as she felt the ground shudder beneath her as what could only be described as an iron giant took a step, its one eye seemingly scanning the horizon before hunching over and fired from what she could only describe as a massive cannon. The recoil… sweet Celestia the recoil on that thing packed so much force that it blew debris in her face and slammed her with a wall of air that all but sent her flying. She ended up hitting the  floor more on her ass than anything, and instead of getting up, instead of running, she just found herself laying on the ground, paralyzed due to the fact that her bones were rattling beneath her skin.

“W-what in Tartarus?” She choked out for what felt like the third or fourth time today as she tried getting up to try making sense of what in Equestria was going on.

The Obelisk slammed into the streets of Canterlot and started to slide, as it tore apart the cement beneath it’s feet. The left arm came out and with it so did the rifle that was held firmly between its manipulators. It fired one 170 mm round after the other, unfortunately the shots it fired slammed into the massive shield that was protecting the MT hidden behind it.

“Wasting ammo…”

The Obelisk moved, lowering its firearm and charging in, the thrusters giving the machine the speed it needed to close the gap between the two and actually dodge the retaliatory fire. It moved to the left, then the right to avoid what fire it could and eventually reached its target, the off arm being raised as it slammed forward and the forearm mounted pile bunker sprang into action.

The shield caved, a hole ripping its way through several layers of reinforced metal as an iron stake poked its head out the other end. The wall fell a moment later, the MT having let go as the Obelisk seemed to lose balance as its outstretched limb started to tilt with the shield. The arm and the pile bunker was pulled back not a moment later with the Armored Core moving so that it could avoid the volley of bullets that were being released not a second later.

Somewhere behind it, a couple of buildings were all but turned into swiss cheese as the hail of bullets slammed into them and the Obelisk moved in what seemed to be a semi-circle and responded accordingly.

Bullets were exchanged and the city suffered because of it. Rounds after rounds of iron slugs were tearing into the cityscape, dropping debris here and there as they fell upon the streets and crushed sleeping cars.

That said the exchange lasted less than a minute, with the Obelisk coming out on top as it rammed into the opposing Armored Core and drove its Pile Bunker into the opposing unit’s chassis. Red slattered across the city wall behind it, though even the Obelisk’s pilot wasn’t too sure if it came from the other pilot's blood being thrown everywhere it shouldn’t be or if it was because of the boiling red oil that was no longer being contained behind the Armored Core’s Chassis.

“Got one.”

“Already?”

“I know. How long till the main force arrives?”

Sunset finally regained control of her body as she stumbled to her feet, and following those instincts that were screaming at her, she ran like the devil was chasing after her.

Sunset Shimmer would admit it to anyone, she had never considered herself a coward. She wasn’t scared of that old fable known as Nightmare Moon, she wasn’t scared of the threat imposed by learning Dark Magic and she wasn’t scared of getting on Celestia’s nerves. But this, this scared her.

And for good reason too; this was a battlefield.

She’d heard about them, about how Equestria had been forced to go to war countless times in the past, but she had never actually been on a battlefield.

Why would she; Equestria was at peace, it had been at peace for almost a thousand years now. The idea of being on a battlefield was almost a foreign concept to even the Royal Guard. Yes, there were old stories that drew aspiring stallions and mares to their ranks, but this was nothing like the stories she herself had heard.

Everything was so bloody noisy, it felt like her hearing was ready to leave her just to shut the noise out.

Everything seemed to be rushing by so she couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on.

Everything seemed to be exploding; buildings were being torn open, debris was flying everywhere and the impact of whatever the hell was hitting the ground kept knocking her off her feet.

The battlefield was beyond any nightmare she could begin to think up.

Amidst all the noise she heard someone talking, though most of it was muted beyond comprehension. A moment later she found something else getting blown up and she found herself smacked in the head with the remains of an arm.

She screamed. She screamed louder than she thought was possible for an Equestrian.

And yet her scream was drowned out by whatever was going on. She saw an iron giant slam into the grounds before her and looking up at it, tears of all things starting to well up in her eyes, Sunset realized that it was staring at her before turning away. Attention focused on something behind her as it fired that thing in its grasp.

Sweet Celestia… she’d never felt so small in her entire life. That thing, it saw her and it found her so insignificant that she’s worth paying any more attention. Sweet Celestia, it paid more to its own kind than the creatures she was disguised as and some of them were using some brand of artillery against it. Artillery that seemed to do nothing in terms of wounding - let alone slowing down the iron giant.

“Goddess…” Sunset’s words went ignored as the giant of steel trudged forward, its weapons firing as they continued across the battlefield.

The merc wouldn’t lie to himself, he hated these kinds of ops. He hated an op that ran the risk of civilian casualties. “If only Canterlot hadn't stood as the grounds where these guys would relocate…” He muttered, as he raced across the battlefield. “If I didn’t need the Coam then…” He stopped himself, realizing that that would be an empty excuse. “I can’t avoid jobs like these forever.” He admitted with a grumble. His head snapped to attention as he saw his Missile Sensor going off.

The Obelisk moved, dodging to the side as it avoided the missile volley now raining down on its location. It didn’t bother trying to shoot anything down, instead it just focused on dodging everything that came close to it. It used old buildings as cover and dug up trenches in the dirt, and in the end it survived the onslaught before finding a clear path forward. Thrusters flared to life, the red flame they had all but turned to orange as the AC burst forward and tore apart the street beneath it.

The pile bunker ripped a hole through an MT, launching red across the grounds as the rest seemed to trail down the weapon. The Obelisk just turned attention focused on the other MT and pointed its rifle towards it. It fired and the shots hit home, only they didn’t stop the machine from moving back, trying to get some distance. The Obelisk though it just pulled its Pile Bunker free and used the arm it was mounted on to rip the disposed MT’s firearm free and started using both to assault the other unit. It raced forward it did, raining down fire that the other retaliated against.

Three firearms howled across this part of Canterlot City, only ending when a forth sounded off, and ripped a hole through the Mt’s firearm to disable it.

The Obelisk just charged forward and planted both its firearms in front of the opposing mech’s torso and opened fire. Shells slammed into the chassis and left it dented, shrapnel was launched in both the air and the ground. The Obelisk kept firing, as the chassis caved in, and only stopped when it blew a hole into the unit’s frame, all but erasing the cockpit and the pilot inside.

“That’s four…” The Raven muttered as he looked around and moved on. “Time.”

“Then that means we wrap this up in two.”

“Let’s earn that paycheck.”

Amidst the tears; amidst the panic and open fear that she was feeling, Sunset found herself reaching a strange sense of calm as she stared up. Honestly, she didn’t have a clue as to why she suddenly felt this way; but upon these alien grounds and nothing but the literal clothes on her back… Sunset felt calm wash over her as she stared up at the iron giants. “Such power…” She muttered watching them march forward, shrugging off blow after blow with barely a glance. “I want that…”

t that…”