Armored Core For Answer: Phase Shift

Mission 02

Water Games

It is near midnight as Hikaru pilots his NEXT into an extremely large hanger, followed by several moving vehicles that clean up after the unit. The many lights over head shine down on the workers as they seem to be in a rush to complete something. Hikaru glances over to his left as the largest part of the hanger contains what looks like an extremely large train, but that was all Hikaru could see before the hanger door slides shut for that area. He stops his NEXT on a repair platform before pulling two levers over his head. The back of the unit open vertically as his seat slides out. It rotates as he steps onto a platform that soon lowers him to the ground. He takes another look at the large hanger, the smell of oil was definitely in the air, as well as the smell of greasy food. His stomach begins to growl as he begins to idolize their food. He takes notice to a woman standing as the platform stops at the floor. This woman has long black hair and green eyes, she is wearing what looks like purple suit but without a tie. She is wearing black high heel shoes, making her a bit taller than Hikaru who finally takes his helmet off. He shakes his head back and forth as his brown hair flings back and forth, reaching to his ears.

“Come with me.” the woman somewhat snaps at him before turning around to walk away.

“You must be…” Hikaru starts as the woman glances back at him.

“Serene Haze.” she interrupts as the pilot shrugs his shoulders.

“Yeah… I kind of figured that one…” he thinks to himself with a frown on his face. “Where are we going?” he asks her as they continue to walk past the workers in the hanger. Many of them are working on multiple Armored Core units, one catches his eyes.

Armored Core Unit: Creeper

Head: SOLDNER-G8H

Core: GAN01-SS-C

Arms: SOLDNER-G8A

Legs: HILBERT-G7L

FCS: YELLOWSTONE01

Generator: ARGYRO/G

Main Booster: CB-HOGIRE

Back Booster: LB-HOGIRE

Side Booster: AB-HOLOFERNES

Over Booster: I-RIGEL/AO

Right Arm Weapon: GAN01-SS-WBP

Left Arm Weapon: GAN01-SS-WBP

Right Back Mounted Weapon: SAPLA

Stabilizer

Core L Upper: MADNESS/CUS2

Paint

Everything: Green/30

Eye Color: Red/255

A massive green NEXT, the head looks like it was squashed from the sides and molded to look like a container. The core is bulky looking and the arms look like they can lift more than the specs suggest. The legs are the most massive part of the body, as if the legs belonged to the giants of mechs. Although it was a massive AC unit, it looked really nearly destroyed. He looks to the weapons of the unit as he gasps in awe. He can see the unit holding a massive bazooka in each hand, nearly the size f the AC’s arms. He walks closer to the NEXT and looks on the back to see a grenade launcher barely holding on.

“Cut that out! I’m trying to make sandwich!” a Russian voice can be heard from behind a curtain next to the AC unit.

Hikaru walks behind it to see a group of people swarming a man wearing nothing but his boxers at the moment. His body is covered in cuts and open wombs with blood coming out. The doctors there seem to be holding the mans arms down as he attempts to eat what looks like a large sandwich. The man has dull green eyes with somewhat spiky blonde hair with a bit of it covering his forehead. Hikaru is amazed that even though the man is wounded like that, he can still summon the strength to fight back the doctors that are swarming him. Finally after a few moments they patch him up, all of them breathing a sigh of relief as they stagger away from the man.

“You!” the Russian suddenly speaks up as Hikaru looks towards him.

“Y-Yeah?” he asks while taking a step back.

“Ha-ha! Don’t be afraid, I can hear your stomach growling from here! Come! I make sandwich for you!” the man tells him while grabbing another pair of large hoagie buns. He layers the buns with mayo and meat for Hikaru, followed by slices of cheese. As this seemingly kind man makes his sandwich, Hikaru notices a pistol lying on the table beside him, with an assault rifle above the pistol. Hikaru then looks past the table with the weapons to see the standard Russian military uniform, but with a lot of knives on the inside of the coat. Hikaru realizes that this man is more dangerous than his first understanding.

“Thanks for the sandwich…” he thanks the man as the Russian slams his hand on Hikaru’s back, nearly causing him to choke on his first bite.

“It was no problem at all! I enjoy making sandwich for others! The gift of sandwich is priceless!” the man tells him as he begins to laugh. At that point Serene rushes up to Hikaru and pulls him away from the Russian.

“I look away for one moment and I lose you like a little kid, don’t do it again!” she snaps at him as he takes another bite out of his sandwich.

“Seems like good kid, might be bit of pansy.” the Russian tells himself while watching Serene drag him away.

“I was hungry…” Hikaru tells Serene as she furiously taps her right foot.

“We have a meeting with the board of directors for GA! It was your idea to work for them in the first place! The least you can do is act like you’re old enough to pilot a NEXT!” Serene shouts at him as they wait in a room with a pair of chairs. Suddenly the door behind Serene opens up as a man wearing a grey suit walks in. He has short red hair and green eyes with a pair of glasses on.

“I take it you are Hikaru Katsu and Serene Haze?” the man asks them as he extends his hand to them. Serene shakes his hand first before Hikaru stands to his feet and shakes his hand as well.

“We apologize for being late, someone had to get a bite to eat first.” she explains to the man in the suit while glaring at Hikaru.

“It’s quite all right, the battle field can be a harsh place. A soldier needs to eat while he can before heading out to the next mission.” the man tells her as Serene seemed to be caught off guard by his reply.

“You’re right…” she mutters while crossing her arms.

“I suppose that is enough small talk, please, come on in.” the man tells them while moving to the side of the door. Serene and Hikaru walk inside of the room as the man in the suit closes the door behind them. In the room is a round table with a few men sitting down, two of them are smoking cigarettes. All of them are wearing the typical business clothes. On the table is a massive amount of papers along with the folders that are suppose to be holding them.

“Mercenary, please have a seat.” the one that is not smoking a cigarette speaks up as Hikaru and Serene take a seat in front of them.

“We’re not going to make this meeting very long, in fact we’re going to get straight to the point.” the one to the left of him adds before putting his cigarette back in his mouth.

“We want you to attack the Naval Port of Mimir. For some time now their forces have been coming into our territory, delivering hit and run tactics on our own Naval bases. If you accept the mission you are to completely destroy their Naval strength. Take no prisoners.” the man without a cigarette explains to him.

“Another thing, just for the sake of irony, we want you to also complete this mission within five minutes. We will teach them not to mess with the Global Armaments of America.” the man who shut the door speaks up as Hikaru thinks it over.

“I’ll do it, but I want something alongside my payment.” Hikaru tells them as they look at each other.

“That depends on what you are asking for…” one says as Serene looks interested now.

“All I ask is if my unit is damaged, you repair my mech at a reasonable price.” Hikaru says as they talk it over.

“We’ll make a deal with you if that is the case… complete the mission within three minutes and we will repair your unit for free. However, if you are a second over three minutes, you will deploy on another mission for us with no pay.” the man without a cigarette tells him.

“You have a deal.” Hikaru replies as they almost seemed shocked.

“You should also know that you have a partner in this mission, his name is Kazimir Demyan, the pilot of a large green unit. As soon as the repairs on his NEXT is complete, you are to move out. That is all for this meeting.” one of the men says while putting out his cigarette. Hikaru and Serene walk out of the room as she gives him a crazy look.

“What is it?” he asks her as they walk back towards the hanger.

“You’re a rookie pilot with basically no experience, yet you have made a deal to complete a mission in three minutes… you’re crazy. You are crazy if you think you can pull this off, a rookie pilot like you.” she answers before looking away from him.

“Let’s just find this Kazimir guy, they said he is the pilot of a large green unit. The only green unit I have seen while here is…” Hikaru thinks out loud as a laugh can be heard in the distance.

“You must be talking about the mighty Creeper!” the Russian shouts from the distance as he walks over to them. He is now wearing his uniform and wearing his black boots as well.

“I guess you are my partner for this mission, my name is Hikaru Katsu. This is my Operator Serene Haze.” Hikaru introduces as Kazimir gives both of them a large bear hug.

“It is good to meet you two, we will blow stuff up together! Ha-ha!” laughs Kazimir as he sets them down.

“I will go and prepare for the mission. I will let you know when the repairs are finished with your unit.” Serene coldly tells Hikaru before walking away.

“Ah… which unit is yours hm?” asks Kazimir as Hikaru points out his NEXT with mechanics around it.

“The teal colored one.” he replies as Kazimir laughs to himself.

“So I have been stuck with a rookie! That unit is very standard!” Kazimir tells him before putting his arm around Hikaru.

“This is actually my first mission…” Hikaru reveals as Kazimir drops him suddenly.

“So this is first time you will blow stuff up for money? Fantastic! Kazimir and the mighty Creeper will show you great time!” Kazimir tells him as he picks him up off of the ground.

“I actually have a deal with GA… if I can complete the mission in less than three minutes I will get free repairs…” Hikaru tells him as the Russian gets a serious look to his face.

“What if you do not complete in three minutes?” he asks.

“I will complete another mission for them free of pay.” Hikaru answers.

“Then we will just have to complete mission in three minutes. I will help make sure you win deal.” Kazimir tells him before walking away.

“He is seriously a strange man…” Hikaru thinks to himself as he takes notice to the workers around his unit leaving. He walks over to his AC before getting on the platform and pressing a button to make it go up. He steps off of the platform before sitting down in his seat. It rotates to the forward position before sliding back into the core. As the back of the unit is sealed tight Hikaru begins to run through the systems of his unit as he activates the com link.

“I see you noticed that they have finished the repairs.” Serene’s voice comes through as Hikaru tunes his radar controls.

“As soon as they were finished.” Hikaru replies while testing the movement speed of the AC’s arms. The NEXT’s arms move out to the side a bit before returning to the original position. Hikaru then checks the amount of magazines inside of the right arm.

“Just to be safe, you may want to reload your weapon.” Serene tells him as Hikaru does just that. On the area where the AC is holding the rifle, a small part of it slides out of place before a magazine slides into the rifle from the palm of the units hand.

“Energy levels look good. We can deploy at any time miss Operator.” Hikaru tells her as she almost seemed to growl at him.

“I will alert you before departure.” she snaps at him before cutting the link.

“Why was I stuck with miss charming personality?” he asks himself.

Seconds go by before those seconds turn to minutes. The minutes turn to hours before Hikaru falls asleep. He then wakes up to the feeling that his unit is moving for some reason. He activates his external cameras before noticing that his unit is being loaded into a plane.

“Rise and shine. It’s morning time and mission time.” Serene chimes in through his com link while he yawns.

“This is Kazimir Demyan, set your com link to C One, digit twelve to make sure of secure channel.” Kazimir tells Hikaru as the rookie pilot presses the appropriate channel button before scrolling the digit to twelve.

“Channel secured.” Hikaru tells Kazimir as he begins to laugh.

“You will be arriving at the drop point in less than an hour. Just be ready to fight as soon as you drop, it would be a shame for you to die on your first real mission.” Serene tells him.

“Don’t listen to annoying Operator. Just do your best and then we will have victory sandwich.” Kazimir tells Hikaru.

“It’s a good thing she can’t hear what he says…” Hikaru thinks as he goes over the systems for his unit one last time.

The moments go by very quickly as they arrive at the drop point. The drop was so very sudden, that Hikaru barely has enough time to put on his helmet. He activates his boosters as he slows his fall, thankful that he acted in time. Suddenly Kazimir’s unit roars past him at an incredible speed, aimed at a ship directly below them. Kazimir takes all of the shots coming from the ship from below before landing on the ship. The ship breaks in half due to the amount of force from the fall as Kazimir continues on his rampage. Hikaru boosts towards the nearest ship before slashing into the hull, causing water to fill inside of the ship. A few missiles appear on his radar before he turns his unit around to face them. With a sudden boost to the right side he avoids the missiles before taking aim at the nearest ship. Out of the rocks comes a few Normal units, equipped with missiles and rifles. As a few shots hit Hikaru he rushes towards them with his energy saber already drawn. He jabs the saber through one before boosting away. The explosion throws pieces of the Normal everywhere as a second unit boosts away from the debris. In the distance one of the bases in the rocks blows up as Kazimir emerges from the flames with laughter filling the com link.

“The last base is behind you rookie. We attack together to complete within time limit.” Kazimir tells him as Hikaru turns his unit around to face a large base inside of a mountain. They speed inside before stopping in front of an extremely large base.

“That’s your bonus target, take out the enemy Arms Fort and complete the mission.” Serene tells Hikaru as he boosts towards it.

“I will take care of the Arms Fort, you mop up small fry!” Kazimir tells him as Hikaru turns to the left to head deeper into the base. He holds his saber out to his side as he boosts past the ships, taking a considerable amount of damage at the same time. One of the shots from a Normal actually blows a chunk of armor off of his right shoulder.

“The targeting is screwed for my rifle now…” he thinks to himself as he spots three ships in the distance.

With an explosion of speed he rushes towards the three ships as he slashes through them. A blast is received from behind as a Normal boosts up to Hikaru. Kazimir suddenly moves in front of the Normal before firing his two bazooka’s at it. The two blasts easily destroy the Normal as two more boost up to Kazimir and pin down his arms, forcing his unit to release the bazooka’s. With a display of might the Creeper unit slams the Normal’s into each other before they explode right in front of him. A third unit attempts to attack from behind before Kazimir turns around and punches into the cockpit of the enemy Normal. He then pulls out the entire cockpit with the pilot squirming around. Creeper suddenly clenches his fist as the pilot is crushed instantly. While throwing the crushed remains to the side, another Normal attacks from behind. This time Hikaru slashes through the Normal as the two parts sink into the water beneath them.

“That’s all of them. The boys back at GA will not like this… you completed the mission at two minutes and fifty-nine seconds. Hmph… return to the hanger and get fixed up.” Serene tells Hikaru as he laughs to himself.

“We cut it pretty close.” Hikaru tells Kazimir.

“This is cause for celebration sandwich!” Kazimir shouts as he suddenly pulls out a sandwich from behind his seat.

“I made it… my first real mission. Am I… doing the right thing?” Hikaru asks himself while looking at the flames from the destruction that he helped create.

Mission Status…

…

Complete.