Embers After Flames, Chapter 6.1 (Patreon)

6.1

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The PCA had been a little busy recently.

Well. The PCA had been busy ever since Grid 339. The bombardment of the Grid had been noticed by everyone on the planet after all, and Belius Staging Point going up in flames at about the same time had also been somewhat widely noticed.

The PCA now maintained a continuous cordon around both locations. There were plenty of people who were still quite interested in both locations, either for salvage or for information.

The first month had been a nearly continuous series of pokes at the PCA by various groups to see if they could get anything out of it. Hilarious, really.

Anyway, the PCA now had a few permanent commitments in Belius, and the scale of both of them, combined with their previous losses in their assaults, meant that their troops were shifting around a lot more than they had previously.

It was mostly a visibility thing. It was the PCA telling the planet ‘Hey, we’re still here and we’ll still wreck your face if you bother us’. The posturing was working, and it was further reinforced by a few assaults here and there, most of which were falling upon the RLF as the biggest visible problem. That had been perfectly predicted by Flatwell, of course, and the RLF was weathering the storm as best as it could.

My own operations continued in the background, though we were now a bit more active than we had previously been. An increased encounter rate with Ghosts told me that ALLMIND was the same. Nothing unusual on that particular front.

However, the PCA’s more active behaviour had other effects than on just the RLF. All these troop movements created a lot of chaos. A lot of the time, that chaos wasn’t particularly useful.

Today, it had manifested into an opportunity I couldn’t help but take.

“We’ve got another rescue mission coming up, everyone.”

I had, as with every time I’d started one of these ‘rescue missions’, gathered everyone for it. All the Firekeepers and all of my children.

After all, ‘rescue mission’ only meant one thing: another member of the family, soon to be found.

“PCA movements have created an opportunity for us that we have to take. A Watchpoint on the high probability list has become vulnerable.” I began my explanation, bringing up the data on the screens for the Firekeepers and passing it directly to my children. “Watchpoint Delta is located in the northwestern bay area of Belius. There are twelve Grids with surviving interconnections in its immediate vicinity and more beyond that. It is surrounded in all directions by ocean for tens of kilometers, and until very recently, I’ve regarded it as too fortified a target for our operations.”

All of which was unfortunately true.

Watchpoint Delta was the stage of the finale of chapter one of Armored Core 6. It’s where you meet Ayre for the first time.

But unlike in the game where there were a few big turrets, an AC, and a small number of PCA units guarding the place, there was significantly more things there in this day and age. The PCA hadn’t pulled out of Belius, after all, and my fairly constant attacks on Watchpoints had led to ever greater fortifications over time.

Watchpoint Delta was a fortress right now. Rings of sonar arrays made the waters a non-viable way to approach without being detected. The surrounding Grids were watched at all times, and activity in the tram lines would get the PCA’s attention very quickly.

Worse, most of them were out in the water with the Watchpoint. That meant that I hadn’t been able to slip Antigens into the zone, which meant that the typical advanced intelligence I could usually offer was also reduced.

The only plus side to all of this was that Watchpoint Delta was the only Watchpoint that shared this entire set of terrain conditions. Nowhere else would have such a problem if we could get through this.

“From the data, fully half of their numbers are currently deployed elsewhere.” I continued. “I expect this hole will be plugged within a few days. Fortunately, that does leave us a window of opportunity tomorrow. We will have a twenty six minute period where a Coral Storm will cut off communication and observation to Watchpoint Delta. That is your operational window. You will have to infiltrate, get the objective, and exfiltrate within that time.”

“Tight tolerances.” Rutendo muttered, though the sentiment was echoed among most of the Firekepers.

“It is unfortunately the best chance we’re going to get.” I agreed. “However, I’m not sending you in with no extra support. The first thing you should know is that I’m going to outfit you with Overboost Units, which should make your approach significantly faster and safer.” Overboost Units were things I had worked out years ago, back when I’d been fiddling with the Back Booster Units. My inspiration had been the Vanguard Overed Boost from Armored Core: For Answer, of course.

The implementation was a little different. Rather than a pile of rockets larger than the AC itself, I’d instead taken a Cycling Surge Coral Generator and specialized it into providing the entirety of its energy output into a set of thrusters, which saved significantly on fuel requirements and therefore also significantly reduced the risk of unscheduled explosive deconstruction.

The Overboost Unit was still one-use, unfortunately. A little too large and heavy to be of use in standard AC combat, which meant it had to be purged upon entering the typical ranges. Of course, the chosen method of purging here happened to involve using the unit as a missile, so that was one last additional usage of it.

“Additionally, the Sea Spider will be lingering outside of the sonar detection radius. If you require heavy support, it will be available.” Just not immediately, owing to the distance. Unfortunate, especially with how much seconds could matter on the battlefield, but that was the way things were. “The former should allow you to approach the area without being destroyed by long range fire. The latter should be able to handle reinforcements if they arrive unexpectedly.”

I’d also hand them my special projects, but honestly, most of them wouldn’t help very much here. The need to get close very fast was going to be the primary factor in this engagement, and once they were inside of close range, mobility and sustained firepower was going to be the overwhelmingly most useful factor. A few of the special projects could handle that, but they’d be better off sticking to the usual gear.

“I wish I could do more for you.” I felt like I was letting them down a little, to be honest. Normally I could do so much more for them, after all. They wouldn’t agree, though.

“We’ll work with it.” Alicia leaned forwards, eyes firming with determination. “When do we depart?”

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The Firekeepers arrived at the staging zone a little under eleven hours later; flown in on aerial transports equipped with dampening metamaterials and ultra high refresh rate MDD, which left it just this side of undetectable so long as it was sufficiently far away from things.

The beach of the bay that Watchpoint Delta was in was quite sufficiently far away from things. It was a bit over twenty two kilometers away from the Watchpoint. The Overboost Units would allow the Firekeepers to cross that distance in a little under forty five seconds if they were doing a straight burn.

This was in no way going to end up being subtle. I expected that the PCA would start attempting to shoot them down within ten seconds, from what little I could observe of their artillery set up. Firepower would increase for the next thirty seconds after that as more and more guns turned in their direction, until every gun that could be pointed in their direction would be pointed in their direction. Dodging would bleed their speed a little, but not by much. In the final stages of the approach, the artillery would fall into irrelevance, turning too slowly to track the ACs.

It was early in the morning, and a wave of fire was slowly crossing the sky, blanketing the world with interference from the watchful eyes above. Every time the storms passed, the whispers within grew a little louder, but true Contact was a while away yet.

When the Firekeepers had arrived, there had been only fifteen minutes to spare before the beginning of the operation. I had woken them an hour beforehand, leaving them plenty rested and refreshed. Preparations to deploy their ACs took only a few minutes, as the transports were fully equipped for the task of handling the Overboost Units and outfitting the ACs.

Everything came back green, and so I draped them in metamaterial cloth before removing them from the transports, which I quickly removed from the area.

The final ten minutes passed in anticipatory quiet as the Firekeepers went through the pre-battle rituals they all had.

Still, the clock inevitably counted down. The storm covered the sky. Five of my children settled into a more complete symbiosis with their partners for the day.

“Begin.”

Jamming went up right as the Firekeepers all burst into action; all five of the Overboost Units igniting and launching the ACs forwards in a flash of burning red light.

The acceleration was harsh, even for the Firekeepers with all their augments. It was harsher than any Quick Boost, even; because it was right on the calculated and tested edge of what they could handle. The sound barrier came and went, ignored through sheer power.

The ACs blasted across the bay, bright and obvious and oh so very fast. The group spread out, assuming a rough pentagonal formation that left none of them at quite the same height. The lightweight frames were already peeling ahead of the heavyweight frames, their greater aerodynamics offering less resistance to the air.

Ezra marked an artillery platform, and Alpha Melee avoided the blast at the last possible second, thrusters igniting and pushing it just far enough out of the way. Even so, the beam of light passed close enough that his AC’s Primal Armour sparked with crimson lightning as it reacted to the sheer energy of the beam.

The approach continued unabated. Two of the Firekeepers were moving low enough that their passages were leaving trails of vapourized water in the ocean below them, long streams of frothy white against the deep blue.

Another beam came, avoided again at the last moment. Then another, as another gun finished turning, and then even more.

Lines of light carved through the space between my Firekepers and the base, stretching all the way back to the beach they had launched from. The blasts carved molten trenches in the sand and rock, superheated stretches of water into plumes of steam and energy. They kept coming, with less and less time to react as the ACs came closer and closer-

And then Alpha Support proved a fraction of a second too slow. The Primal Armour flared, hardening for the briefest of moments as it tried to deflect as much energy as possible. Against the power of an artillery gun, it almost didn’t matter.

The beam simply removed an arm from the AC, advanced armour and superstructure both reduced to a stream of energized particles. It wasn’t lethal damage, but it was uncomfortably close.

Nevertheless, the approach was done. The Overboost Units purged, detaching from the ACs they had been pushing forwards, angling upwards as they went over them. They had moments to decide their terminal guidance, but that was enough.

Five supersonic Coral missiles crashed into the fortress. 

For one brief and blinding moment, the fortress shone like the stars.