//------------------------------// // [CH 6] Hot Pink // Story: Armored Core: A Nine Breaker's Ponies // by Xymeiu //------------------------------// No response came from the other end. Just stillness. The tense situation grew even more as the other armored core moved not. The annoyed Raven finally realized that the system was shut down in the dimension jump when he noticed the eye line flash with activity. The head looked up to see the Rabbit's Foot towering not too high above it, though it was met with near-contact closeness of a laser rifle boring down upon it. ▬♦▬Inside Coral Star | Slightly Earlier▬♦▬ Sumika's vision was cut off when the cockpit's workings died out suddenly. Almost immediately, she felt the feeling of being dropped and gaining of speed did not help ease her worries. The velocity increased until she was slowly being lifted off her seat, held down only by her safety belts. An unexpected stop forced her back into her chair, an unpleasant feeling reminiscent of multiple instances of this happening. All systems were shut down, and due to the unit not being a full Raven's armored core, she had to restart the inner workings manually. Sumika groaned. This was going to take a short amount of time, but any pilot would agree that this was work of considerable aggravation. The center panel lit with a white glow, casting shadows where the light missed. It finally dimmed down to a tolerable brightness and showed a model of the General Purpose Armored Core, Ariake, with many of its functions devoid of activity. Sumika set to work rebooting the system. The pulse generator needed powering up first of all tasks in order to operate anything else. Without further ado, Sumika began the monotonous task of chronologically activating the various parts one by one. Several minutes clocked by in general silence. The work having been completed, the lesser Raven threw herself into the chair's back rest letting out an exasperated sigh. Before she could have a mini-celebration of sorts, the thud of a large object slamming into the ground originated from the frontward side of the combat frame. Not now, she mentally whined, I'm not ready for an attack yet. The pilot rapidly switched on the multiple mechanisms and anxiously waited for the visor to appear. A flash of light flooded the room revealing the core of a genuine armored core, a unit she regretted not choosing when she first became a Raven mercenary. It was a night black, a color enhanced by the sunlit forest around her. She looked up to see who she was facing, that wish denied as she stared down the end of a high powered laser rifle directed at her AC's head. The transceiver rang, breaking the silence that lasted a few mere moments. "Who are you?" a male voice questioned. Sumika took notice of a group of odd colored horses in the corner of her eye, two whose manes and tails flowed majestically in the breeze. A select few of the grouping had horns on their heads, some sporting wings of a mythical creature, and two simply lacked both. She saw a pattern with all of these "horses", if they were, they all adorned a marking on the exact same spot on their rear end, all differing in design and color. They just watched with looks of extreme interest and concern. "Tell me who you are, or I render you blind," the voice ordered once again, its owner losing patience. The red dot on the head of the black armored core narrowed in her direction. The rifle shifted slightly as the black unit's grip tightened on the handle. The pink mech's pilot was more than scared, she was terrified, but defiant to show it. The gun covered almost all portions of the screen, save for a slim cut-off on the right end. "Alright, I'll tell you," Sumika finally spoke, uneasiness apparent in her voice. "My name is Sumika. I'm a Raven." "You're a Raven. Who sent you?" the other person's suspicions raised. "Nobody. I escaped." Sumika shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "From what?" The intruding weapon backed off slightly away from her "face", giving the new Raven some breathing room. "The constant fighting. I'm sick of it." "Then how did you get here?" "I got a message from this odd man named Elan Cubis." "How do I know you're not lying?" "Why would I lie to a person who has me at gunpoint?" "I'll take your word for it. For now," the black AC stepped back slightly, lowering its weapon slowly. Sumika released a breath she unknowingly held. "I still can't trust you completely," he said, "so be warned that I will keep an eye on you." ▬♦▬♦▬ To the audience, it seemed as if the two colossus objects held a fruitless staring contest, the only prize being life. The ground shook as Leos backed away from the pink invader. An aura of discomfort that radiated from the unnatural-looking reverse jointed bipedal machine dissipated, but did not fade away completely. The guards watched everything and their surroundings intently, stationed around the perimeter so as to deter any curious civilians. The Rabbit's Foot turned its head toward the ponies, its always intimidating red dot eye glaring down at them. Some flinched at the sudden attention, or namely one, while the others stared. Soon, the pink armored core followed suit, turning its own head towards the equines, the pink coloring not helping whatsoever. It seemed as though they were talking, but no words were heard from the machines. Princess Celestia, flanked by some gold-armored guards, flew up to Leos' AC and tapped on the core while still in the range of the head. She pointed at the pink counterpart and then in the direction of Canterlot to follow the same process as they did with Leos, albeit without spending three hours on listening to an encyclopedia. The other seemed to catch the meaning of this gesture and stepped closer to Klein, waiting on the lead to move. Just before anyone could move, an arrow pierced a flying guard in the side, the wound being a clean through-and-through. A second arrow aimed at the black AC hit the right arm and merely bounced off. Everyone on the ground hid in the bushes, out of sight of the squadron of griffons assaulting the gathering behind Coral Star. The attackers let out an ear-piercing screech but were interrupted when a superheated blue blade of plasma cut one out of the side of the unit in half, the heat melting all in between and disallowed blood to be spilled. The body tumbled into the unmerciful ground, stopping at the large feet of the counter-attacker, Rabbit's Foot. A concentrated stream of plasma extended from the left arm at the wrist, previously hidden. It hovered above the ground as the defender paused after swinging and landing a successful hit. Coral Star aimed its weapon at the unit, but never fired and instead lowered it and extended its own laser blade, this one slightly shorter and of a bright golden color. Both fighters readied for a close quarters battle against smaller flying griffons adorned with many silver plates that hid their coats and held crossbows as their weapons. ▬♦▬Attacked▬♦▬ Time halted to a standstill as both parties readied for combat. The griffons ceased all approach and simply hovered where they were as they inspected both the opponents. Huge metal monsters glared at them with what seemed like so much anger, so densely put in one spot, could choke one of them to death. Elongated blades made of extremely heated plasma emanated from their arms, their power apparent when the unit watched their ally get brutally sliced in half trying to ram the body itself. The two armored cores stepped away from each other to separate themselves for the swinging of armor piercing blades. It now became a battle of patience, of who would attack first. There were now nine griffons out of the previous ten versus two deadly machines ten times their size, maybe more. The commanding griffon adorning golden armor rather than silver like the rest screeched loudly, obviously heard from the town nearby. He flew towards the opposition followed by his subordinates. The unit split into two groups of four and surrounded both the attackers while the last quickly approached the bush he saw the rest duck in, but was intercepted by a group of royal guards. The griffons had formed a circle around Leos and Sumika separately. Klein swung his arm around narrowly missing a griffon but cut off his tail, effectively stunning him with pain. He took advantage of this and dove the laser blade into the broadside of the small enemy, ending his life. A griffon had scratched his unit on the other side with a very audible scraping sound. Leos turned and grabbed his offender, slamming him into the ground. He caught sight of another attempting to attack low, and kicked it into a tree, breaking it and the neck of the griffon. The last one he saw out of the corner of his view attempted to flee and failed as a loud bang followed by a high-energy bolt of plasma struck his side, fired by Leos' laser rifle. Sumika was in the air, lunging at the griffons with her blade and bursts of speed with her lightweight frame. She caught a griffon unexpectedly and sliced his head clean off. That was her last enemy of her attacks. She hit the ground as a dead griffon with a burnt circle hit her leg. ▬♦▬♦▬ The guards have already effectively neutralized the lone griffon and watched the two giants as they massacred the remaining opposition. With both displaying destructive power equally brutal and quick, the idle unit stood back and watched as the pink newcomer lung at their opponents in mid-air while the black fighter frame never moved from its spot on the ground. One griffon tried to flee from the fate that his allies faced and received a beam of light to his side, the extreme heat uttering a shrill cry as the bolt killed him almost instantaneously. The lifeless body was sent careening into the pink unit's leg as she landed with a low thud. By the time everything had calmed down, Leos still held his weapon up in the direction of Sumika back at square one with the exception of multiple body parts around their legs. Klein's night black AC stood sideways, facing the ponies, back leg bent slightly and laser blade active and in Sumika's direction. ▬♦▬♦▬ Leos paused his actions as he kept his weapon pointed at the pink AC he fought alongside only seconds ago. "Hey," Sumika called out over the comms system, "You have a feeling of déjà vu?" she joked. Leos chuckled and lowered his stance, "I have to say, you're pretty good for a GP-AC pilot." "It comes with practice." "You say that, but I reached the top Arena position within days of registering as a Raven." "Speaking of which, you remind me of someone." "Who?" "I'll tell you later. My radar's picking up more hostiles coming from the same direction as the last." "Got it. Just use your blade, though. The inhabitants have no ammo." "Heard you the first time." A massive legion off in the distance made its appearance over a mountainside as a cloud of silver and blue flying figures. Leos took notice of this first and looked down at the ponies walking out of the bush, the guards immediately giving full attention at the sight of this. He pointed a metal finger at them, then to the town nearby, and finally the swarm of griffons quickly approaching. They caught the meaning of the gesture when they caught sight of the army rushing towards them and rallied the group in the direction of Ponyville, some staying behind to aid the two giants. Leos switched over to his laser cannon, the open two-piece weapon folding over his shoulder while charging a shot within the deepest part of the barrel. His armored core's left arm lifted up to grab a hold of the bottommost bar. Flying guards backed away from the long tube while the black holder waited for the most opportune moment to fire, the white pegasi wary of this weapon's capability. Sumika backed up to the side of Rabbit's Foot and waited. Come on, Leos silently said aloud. Just a bit closer. The army was almost upon them. Closer. More. Come on, keep going. The unit was nearly above them. The targeting icon beeped rapidly, signifying a lock on his target. White particles gathered around inside the barrel openings, filing into a larger ball of plasma that began to surge with electricity. Fire. The waiting explosive orb launched from the triangular tube, rocking the standing metal biped violently. The airborne ball of light seared through the sky burning the air around it in its path for the first of the pack. The cannon unlocked its connection to the main part of the launcher with a click and folded back over the shoulder of the black machine. Leos switched to the vertical missiles and found targets as quickly as they came, launching four self-propelled rockets into the air. Loud whines and white jets of fire erupted from the backs of the two giants and launched the figures into the distance. A fireball blew away a sizable mass of the fighting force ahead and sent everything in every which way. Leos balled his AC's left hand into a fist and swung at the nearest griffon left.