Armored Core: Clipped Wings

Chapter One

“Johnathen McLane, Raven Name; Electrolux as 04:00 this morning, you undertook a mission under the employ of Crest, didn’t you?” said the Representative, his voice demeaning.

Johnathen knew that this court-martial wasn’t going to go well. “Yes.”

“And this mission; was it sent through the Ark before you accepted it?”

Johnathen really wanted to deny the accusation, but there was no escaping this. Ravens Ark wasn’t a nest of morons. “…No.”

The Representative put his fingers to the bridge of his nose. “-Sigh- look, I don’t know what went through your head, but you know the rules around here. NO assignments are to be taken without going through the Ark first. We do this because if we don’t, Corporations will be gaining edges over each other and conflicts will become that much harder to control, you read on this in the written application.”

Johnathen didn’t lift his head. The Representative was absolutely right. “…I know.”

“What was going through your head?”

Johnathen searched for the answer. “…just…pressure to be better.”

“Well you should’ve thought about taking a higher risk mission than a higher paying one. Your liscense as a Raven is revoked, this means you can no longer operate an AC or take missions offered by corporations. All of your possessions are to be removed from the locker, and your AC will be auctioned off. Do you have anything more to say?”

“…The AI I created, may I retrieve it from my AC?”

The Representative seemed to think on this. He sighed. “Yes, it is your possession, therefore you MUST retrieve it.”

Johnathen bowed his head. “Thank you.” He turned and walked away.

The Representative said something before he exited. “You have 3 hours.” The door shut.

Eletrolux. That was a name he wasn’t going to be allowed to carry anymore. He walked through the hallways of the Ark, a guard following him to make sure he wasn’t going to take anything.

He arrived at the lounge, there were several people waiting for them: his (former) operator, Gunner Stampede (a Raven he worked with frequently), and Sonic Rush (Another Raven he worked with).

Jessica Serac, his operator, ran up to Johnathen and hugged him. “John, I’m so sorry. I should have stopped you.”

Johnathen just held her. “No, I’m sorry. I should’ve listened to you.”

Hugh Langely, Gunner Stampede, sighed before saying. “Hey man, I tried to cover for ya, but tech got to you before I did. Sorry.”

John shook his head. “No, don’t worry. I wouldn’t want you involved, you’d get revoked as well.”

“I know, but I still wouldn’t want you involved.”

Sonic Rush, a young girl and suffering from Amnesia as so she can’t recall her name, looked up to Johnathen like a schoolgirl would to her upperclassman/crush. She nudged over to Johnathen slowly. “Um…I’m sorry, sir. I really wish I could’ve helped.”

Johnathen smiled, walked over to Sonic and patted her head. “No, it’s alright. It’s like I told gunboy there, I wouldn’t have wanted any of you involved. I did this by myself and to myself, so don’t worry.”

Sonic blushed a little. “…Still I…I…”

Jessica ‘awed’ at the sight before speaking again. “John, are you going to be okay?”

Johnathen gave as good a smile as he could. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be fine. My friends from before I joined the Mirage military are still around, think I might revive the musician gig, see if I can’t get anything out of that.”

Hugh just whistled. “You do that. I’ll stop by sometime, keep you company.”

Sonic raised her head a little. “S-So will I! I’ll stop by!”

Jessica giggled a little. “Well, I guess we’re your first fans.”

Johnathen smiled. “Thanks.”

After arriving at the hangar, he set his bag down and the guard stood at the door. “You’ve got 5 minutes.” The guard said.

Johnathen sat down in the cockpit of his…what was his AC, Flashbang, the last he would ever sit inside of this unit. He turned on the computer.

The computer sprang to life. A voice came out of the speaker. “Johnathen, good afternoon…did, they catch you?”

Johnathen was saddened. “Yeah, they did. I’m here to get you.”

The computer sounded sad, which didn’t bother Johnathen in the least. “I see. Well, you know where the disk is, so just transfer me onto that and let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

He popped the disk in and started the transfer. He thought back on what had brought him to this point.

-5 days ago-

A Representative from Crest arrived. she had a lust-provoking aura about her that aroused Johnathen and prevented him from turning his eyes from her. “You’re Electrolux? You look tougher than I imagined.”

Johnathen just gave a grin. “Just doing the usual work is all. What is someone from Crest doing here?”

The Representative smiled. She pulled out a disk. “This is an assignment we have directly from one of our Black Ops teams. They want you to assist on a mission they are about to carry out against the newly recognized corporation, Navis. Now I’m a friend of the Leader of this team and I said I’d give her a helping hand. Now what I want to know, Raven, is; will you be that hand?”

Johnathen breathing increased. The Representative’s dress was quite revealing as it was, with the slit up the side of her knee length skirt and her shirt more open atop then most, but she was moving in closer to him. He tried to calm down and think only of business. “You know the Ark is strongly opposed of Corporate assignments not sent through them first.”

The Representative again moved in. “I realize this, but you see, this team isn’t supposed to exist. It’s a team made almost exclusively of AC’s and non-Ark Registered Ravens. This team cannot be relayed to the Ark; else we’d be under a lot of lawsuits and paperwork and the lot, so you see why I come to you myself.”

Johnathen again tried to calm himself down. His breathing kept going up as did another part of his anatomy. This woman was close. I mean REALLY close. Her lips were only a few millimeters from his and Johnathen was having trouble breathing as it was. “I, I’m not sure.”

“This job pays well.”

“Still...”

Her eyes were piercing into his. “Now now, you want to be a stronger Raven, don’t you? In order to be stronger, you need connections, and money. We at Crest can give you those and more.” Her hands were moving up and down along Johnathen’s torso. “That is what you want, isn’t it?”

“…Yeah…” he said, almost out of impulse.

“Then…” her eyes became more sincere. “What’s stopping you?” she moved in again, bringing her lips into contact with his.

Johnathen couldn’t break it. He just felt her, and that was all. Things progressed downhill from there.

-a couple of hours later-

The Crest Representative buttoned her shirt back up and turned to Johnathen. “So, you’ll accept the mission then?”

Johnathen was still sorting through as to why he did what he did. “…Yeah. Who do I report to?”

The Representative stood up. “The Pilot’s name is Agraya. We’ll show you to her when you arrive.” She placed the disk on the table and left.

-Present day-

“Because of her? Boy I’m weak willed.”

“Transfer of File, complete” said the computer. Johnathen hadn’t heard the default Computer voice in so long it sounded Alien to him.

He hopped out of the cockpit and returned to the guard. “Let’s go.”

-A few days later-

“Hey, Johnny, what’s got you down? I thought you’d be happy to be playing again! The crowd loved us, you know, especially seeing as how you haven’t played in over a year.”

Johnathen nodded. “Yeah, Chris, I know. Just, not used to this life is all. I’ll be back in a few days, don’t worry.”

Chris nodded. “Alright, just make sure you get over it fast. We’re going to Circ next week, you know.”

Johnathen nodded. “Yeah…I know.”

Later that day, Johnathen walked along the streets of the city. It was a Mirage-controlled City, so there were obvious Mirage messages and advertisements on the walls. It made him sick at times, but it was better than being shot at.

He sat down in an open-air restaurant and ordered a coffee. He looked around at the town.

I had forgotten how peaceful a normal life is. It’s nice, but unfulfilling.

Someone then sat down at a table near him. Johnathen didn’t quite understand why he decided to look in this person’s direction, but he didn’t care.

There was a woman sitting at the table. Short, neck-length, brown hair, cute face, pretty decent build, couldn’t be any older than 21. She had a simple look of nonchalance on her face as she looked into her laptop.

Johnathen was sitting at a position where the back of the laptop was facing him, so he didn’t figure out what she was looking at. Not that it mattered. He tried not to make a habit of looking into other people’s business.

“You’re coffee, sir.”

Johnathen snapped out of his focus on the woman. “Ah, thank you.” He reached into his pocket and paid the waitress. “That includes tip.”

“Thank you sir.” Said the waitress with a smile.

He turned back to the woman, who was looking on at him and smiled at his politeness.

Johnathen looked away, slightly embarrassed.

The woman laughed. She stood up and moved over to Johnathen. “Find it strange that I admire you’re kindness?”

Johnathen found it strange that she even approached him about it. “Not really. I just find it odd that you looked in my direction as I looked at you.”

The woman smiled and sat at his table. “You find that odd?”

Johnathen was at a loss for words. “Ah…I’m just not used to normal life is all.”

The woman gave him something of a quizzical glance. “Normal? What, were you away for a long time?”

Johnathen lost. “Y-Yeah. I was gone. Work.”

“Ah. You were a…well…you look pretty tough. Were you a soldier?”

Johnathen hung his head. She was good. “Yeah. An MT pilot to be exact.”

The woman clapped her hands in amazement. “AH! That’s so cool!!” she then thought about it. “Wait, if you’re here then…Did you quit?”

Johnathen thought less about what actually happened and correcting her and rather about his image to this stranger. “Ah, actually, yeah, I left. The life was too high-strung, so many rules and always the threat of dying in action.”

The woman gave an affirmative “OH, that is a good point.”

Johnathen scratched the back of his head. “So uh, what do you do?”

“Oh, I’m an analyst. I work for a subsidiary of Mirage. I’m looking over some numbers, simple corporate stuff.”

“Really?” Johnathen had no idea how up-the-ladder this chick was. “That sounds…involved.”

The woman giggled. “Yeah.” She looked at her watch. “Actually, I should probably get back to that job.” She stood up. “Nice talking to you.”

Johnathen stood up. “Ah, Hold on!” the woman turned, but now he was at another loss for words. “um…What’s your name?”

The woman seemed surprised. “Hannah Werkman. You?”

“…Johnathen. Johnathen McLane. Can I…We possibly talk again sometime?”

Hannah smiled, almost about to start giggling. She took out a small pad and a pen and started writing. She handed him the paper. “This is my number, the name of the building I live in, and the apartment number of where I can be found.” She turned around, her face giving him a last glance. “It’d be nice to see you again sometime. Why not, say, tonight?”

Johnathen nodded. “Sure. I’ll be around later tonight.”

Hannah smiled. “See you later, Johnathen.”

Johnathen smiled to himself. He looked at the paper.

993-067-2619

Terran Best Residence

Apartment 3-23

Well, for someone not used to normalcy, he felt he was doing well so far.

He again found himself wandering the streets with nothing to do. He wandered from shop to shop to keep himself occupied. He then realized how boring a normal life was.

Then something rumbled.

“What was that?” asked a bystander.

Another rumble.

“What was that!?” asked another bystander.

Johnathen could swear he heard an explosion. He turned around and saw smoke. “Sir.”

A bystander turned. “W-What?”

Johnathen spoke in the calmest tone he could muster. “We don’t have a foundry near here, do we?”

The bystander looked in the direction the Johnathen was looking. “No. That’s bad.”

Johnathen was afraid of that. “Get to the shelters. Get everyone to the shelters.”

The bystander didn’t question him, he just started shouting to get everyone to the shelters.

Johnathen didn’t know what he was going to do, he just started running. If I remember the map right, Hannah’s apartment is that way. She might not even be there, but I have to look anyway!

Upon arriving at a scene of severe chaos, there were hints of destruction via stray bullet shots. Those bullet holes…MT’s?

He heard and explosion, then something crashed into a building in front of him. “Nope, AC’s!”

He ran towards the AC, pulling a scarf over his face and tying it as to keep smoke out of his lungs, as well as putting on tinted glasses to minimize flash.

The AC was damaged. It fell onto its rear end and sparks were beginning to fly out of its left arm. He rushed to the AC after realizing that the AC wasn’t moving. He didn’t know how long there was until whatever was shooting at this AC would show up, but he just kept on running.

He climbed up the AC and looked for the emergency hatch button. “Aha!”

The head and neck section slid up and out a little, revealing a pilot who was injured from a section of exploded control panel in his shoulder.

Pardon me, HER shoulder. The pilot was obviously female.

“Hey, you okay?”

The pilot looked in Johnathen’s direction. “What’s a civilian doing in my AC?”

“You need to get you’re AC up or you’re going to die!”

“No shit, now why are you in my damned AC?!”

The computer began to flash. “Enemy AC, approaching.”

The pilot held her shoulder in pain. “Damn, he’s coming.”

Johnathen looked at the system. It seemed pretty basic. “Move.”

“What?”

“Move, I’ll pilot.”

The pilot paused for a moment. “…Johnathen?”

Johnathen froze. “What?”

The pilot began to remove her helmet. “Johnathen, what are you doing here?”

It was Hannah! “I can explain later, but right now I need you to move. Without that arm of yours, you’re done.”

Hannah wiggled herself back into the pilot’s seat so she could make some room. “Sit in front of me. I’ll instruct you.”

“No need, I can pilot this myself.” He sat in the space in front of her.

“No, this isn’t some MT, it’s not that simple!”

The computer flashed again. “Enemy AC, in range.”

The hatch closed and visual sensors kicked back on, An AC a distance ahead of them.

Mid-weight AC, AST fire Rifle, Quartet cannon on its back…this guy is for assaults.

“I’m telling you, you’re going to get us killed!”

Johnathen didn’t listen. He just got the AC raised. “Hang tight.” He accelerated the AC and got it up to speed. He raised the machine gun on the right arm and started firing.

The enemy AC began to aim it’s quartet cannon.

“You’re going to get us killed!!” shouted Hannah.

Johnathen then jumped the AC.

The quartet cannon was charged and started firing.

“Hold on!!” Johnathen then forced the AC down. The impact caused damage to the legs. He boosted the AC forward again and lifted the left arm. He activated the beam blade and positioned the arm.

The enemy AC had no time to react. It attempted to raise it’s rifle, but to no avail.

A blade went through the AC, and it exploded.

The Left arm of Hannah’s AC was ripped off in the stab, but otherwise the AC was intact.

Johnathen sighed, he had won and saved both of their lives.

Hannah just looked in amazement at what just happened. Johnathen, who are you?

Good morning/Afternoon/Evening, I don’t know when you’re reading this, ergo the multiple greeting.

I’m Gunslinger Alchemist, and this is my 2nd attempt at an Armored Core Fic. I tried one a while ago, but the story was not really something I was into and I did out of an impulse. I didn’t like where the story was going, and I had no motivation to continue it, so I deleted it.

I feel like this is a better fic than the last one, so this ought to give me some fun for a while. Review me please, I like reviews!