Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

Chapter 14: Nightmare Loop

"Raven, we just received another briefing from the Liberation Front, this must be the other mission their commander mentioned." said Ayre, "Shall we have a look at it?"

The images included with the briefing were of a massive machine, like a bizarre version of the tanks BAWS produced. The tread sections seemed to be mounted as limbs, and the turret, rather than having two cannons, instead mounted a smaller pair of gatling guns, a massive missile launcher, and a widebeam energy shotgun.

"Raven, this is Rainer, Liberation Front Belius Command. I'll be handling the briefing for this mission. The PCA has deployed the CATAPHRACT, a Special Forces weapon designed to assure ground superiority." he explained,"If we allow the corporations to seize this kind of technology, things will take a dire turn. We want you to deny them the opportunity, destroy the machine first."

A frontal image showed another pair of rotary cannons, these ones more akin to grenade cannons an AC might carry, and a peculiar bipedal machine sitting between the front tracks... or was it standing? There was a diagram, showing approximate weapon calibers and suspected energy output, along with observed ground speeds.

Ayre could then suddenly feel a single flare of hatred at the mere mention of CATAPHRACT. She thought about asking, but maybe that's for... another time.

"The CATAPHRACT is a moving fortress, equipped with almost impenetrable armor. It incorporates a bipedal MT as its core so the pilot can better control the machine, making it a highly versatile threat." Rainer explained, "That MT core is also its vulnerability, somewhat. It's abnormally well armored and will shrug off most small arms fire with impunity. We've attached footage we obtained of a corporate AC fighting the machine, so you can see for yourself before engaging it. Thank you for taking this mission, Raven. And good hunting."

Ayre pulled up the footage that had been attached to the comms message; It was a long distance recording, showing what looked like an AC built from Arquebus VP-4 S series parts and equipped with laser weaponry.

The pilot's broadcasting registration showed Independent, but with a build like that, they were clearly corporate sponsored. They engaged the CATAPHRACT, circling it and trying to get to the MT core when they made a mistake, losing momentum for just a second. The turret's rotation caught up to them and the energy shotgun bisected the machine, sending the top half tumbling before the cannons ripped it to shreds.

Ayre felt a stab of fear at how easily it had dispatched the AC. It had cleaved through it like it wasn't even there, no AC she knew of would survive a hit like that without a pulse shield to mitigate it.

"Raven, you'll need to exercise extreme caution around the CATAPHRACT." she warned, "At range, the energy projector may lose coherency and be survivable, but up close it looks as though it will cleave through an AC instantly."

<<I might to swap my loadout to face something like that.>>

She watched as Raven recheck information on the boosters for the SCHNEIDER ALULA/21E. It maintained most of the ground speed and gave incredible quickboost performance, which would help with evading the energy projector. Due to this, it was best to keep them for this particular situation.  What made Ayre want to giggle was the fact that Raven had seemingly forgotten to add these to his AC when he was first making OBSIDIAN WING.  

The machine was exchanged for a DF-BA-06 XUAN-GE Bazooka.  The attack power is 895, which makes this a range version of his powerful melee attacks that can offer significant damage in a range weapon. It can also allow him to replace his melee weapon with a handgun if he would rather go entirely into range while keeping damage high.  Although, for this situation, Raven wasn't interested in using a handgun today.