Embers After Flames, Chapter 7.0 (Patreon)

7.0

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Raven.

A very familiar name to anybody who played the Armored Core series. You played as a Raven, the Raven, in every game other than AC 4 and For Answer. A myth, a legend, the final action of the battlefield.

But those were just games. Here was the reality:

‘Raven’ was the title of one of the most legendary mercenaries who had ever existed. Back in the age before interstellar travel existed, during the height of the Internecine Period, a mercenary by the name of ‘Raven’ appeared.

They started out as a relative nobody, chasing jobs from a multitude of different groups in order to stay afloat. Time and battles eventually proved, however, that this mercenary was of such skill, such danger, and such determination that whoever could acquire their services was effectively guaranteed victory.

Naturally, this reputation attracted attention. Some people wanted to recruit Raven. Some people wanted to kill Raven. Some people wanted to replace Raven. Everyone wanted Raven, for one reason or another. Standing against the entire solar system, it seemed certain that Raven would bend to one force or another, right?

‘Seemed’, yes. But, the impossible happened. Raven did not bend, and no force that could be mustered could break them. A single person in what was basically the prototype to the very first generation of Armored Cores, the Cored MTs, stared the entire Solar System down and stayed free.

Hundreds of years on, and the name ‘Raven’ had been claimed by generations of Mercenaries, championing the cause that was the freedom to fight for what one wished for. Bowing to none, each Raven soared on their own wings.

Raven was a legacy, and now that legacy had arrived upon Rubicon.

So what was the first thing that Raven had done?

Good fucking question, because as it turns out, it’s pretty fucking hard to keep track of the merc that was metaphorically embodying freedom.

They landed somewhere Central Belius and from there had promptly vanished into thin air. I wasn’t sure what they were doing or what they could be doing and I wasn’t entirely okay with that since Raven was, in fact, riiiiight up near the top of the list of ‘the most dangerous things on this planet’.

If I had to make a guess, I’d say that they were probably setting up for Branch, the organisation that Raven was tied to. Raven had an Operator who had likely come with them, but neither King nor Chartreuse, the other two AC Pilots of Branch, had come with Raven.

I suppose it was also possible that Branch was already extant. One of the few tidbits of lore about the group was how, while it only ever had four maximum simultaneous members, those members were free to slide in and out freely. It wasn’t impossible that Raven had met up with somebody planetside.

I had no data on the matter, and it was all quite a bit more complicated than it really needed to be.

I would admittedly be a bit more worried if it wasn’t for the fact that Raven, and Branch as a whole, really, hadn’t been characterized as a hacktivist group standing in opposition to the PCA. They were the enemy of our enemy, and while that didn’t make us friends, it did give us some common ground.

Sometimes, that was all you needed.

Oh well. Until Raven properly shows up, there wasn’t too much I could do about it. I’d keep an eye on the RLF’s data nets and ALLMIND’s public databases, and if I got a clue from either, great.

If not...

Well, it probably wouldn’t take too long for Raven to start fucking with things. If they chose to fuck with the other corps instead of the RLF, even better.

Nothing to it but waiting, now.

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March 28, 38 years post Fires of IBIS.

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“Here’s the situation.” I began. “RLF positions are going strong throughout the entirety of Belius. All but a few civilian zones are the same, with the risky areas still reasonably defended. On that particular warfront, everything is going reasonably well.”

Today, I was with Flatwell. It was hardly uncommon. Today, unfortunately, I wasn’t presenting him with good news or shooting the shit.

“Unfortunately, that will very shortly be challenged.” I shifted the image, moving away from the map of the RLF’s stuff to a list of other people’s stuff. “One of our recent assaults resulted in us recovering a significant intel piece. Follow up investigations have confirmed it as far as is reasonable. We’re about to have a blitz in a few days.”

The image shifted again. Two of the older corps still on the planet flashed red. “Marzan Solutions and Arkvidavat have been on this planet for the better part of five years, and as far as we know, they’ve now gotten sick of dumping their money into the pit. At some point in the last two months, the two met and negotiated a mutual operation. They plan on engaging in simultaneous lightning strikes across multiple RLF points, specifically zones three, five, eight, nine, and eleven. Of the more critical points, that means both the Gallia Dam Complex and the Wall will face a coordinated enemy assault.”

I wasn’t worried about the Wall. That place was a fucking fortress that wasn’t going to fall unless Raven showed up. The Gallia Dam Complex, on the other hand, was significantly less defended, and since it also sourced large amounts of energy and clean water for its region? We’d have to keep an eye on it.

“They’ve come to the conclusion that at least one of these spots is hiding a Well where the RLF is sourcing Coral. They believe that, if they can seize the areas even for a short amount of time, they’ll find enough Coral to start an active colony.” There was more to Coral propagation than just dumping enough Coral into a space for it to grow into an active colony, but they didn’t know that. “The Strider’s current position means it will be able to cover either zone three or zone five on its own. The Wall is so heavily defended that allocating additional assets to it is likely to be a waste. That leaves three zones that will be under considerable assault. While all of them could likely handle the expected incoming corporate forces, that won’t be the only thing they’ll be facing. As far as I can tell, both corps have allocated in excess of five million COAM to mercenary reinforcements.”

Flatwell’s stare was downright flinty, by this point. I didn’t blame him.

Five million COAM was... quite a decent chunk of money. You could finance several brand new ACs with that kind of cash, or an army of MTs. A normal person who got their hands on that kind of money would be living well for multiple lifetimes unless they were particularly stupid in their spending.

On Rubicon, against the RLF, though?

Well, the RLF was the second largest force on this planet, coming in behind only the PCA. The RLF had a lot of good equipment these days, again mostly coming in only behind the PCA, and a lot of reasonably experienced fighters who were well used to bad odds, again due to the PCA, even if the reason this time was the constant battles against them. More than a few unwary mercs, and insufficiently learned corps, had gone up against them and had been pasted in response. In turn, that meant that the mercs who went up against the RLF were usually either desperate enough to take it at a lower price, wanted more for the job since it was obviously not going to be easy, or are after something else.

So, basically, five million COAM was going to either hire a bunch of idiots or it was going to hire a few smarter mercs, or some mix of the two. We were probably going to be looking at somewhere between eight and sixteen mercs. 

A lot of force, yes, but these weren’t exactly the top of the line mercs on the planet at the moment. They were getting there, but they weren’t quite there yet.

For these guys, for the armies of the corps? Yeah, charging into prepared positions was going to take its toll, no questions about it.

If that was it, it wouldn’t be so bad. Unfortunately, they weren’t the entire problem here.

“Of course, a battle on this scale is sure to attract the PCA’s attention.” The PCA was the bigger problem, here. A large-scale attack like this would call them like moths to the flame. Chances are they would intervene in the latter stages of the battles, after all sides had been exhausted but before the battles had actually ended. “As such, we need to make sure we don’t expend ourselves on the first wave in order to make sure we can deal with the second. Unfortunately, that’s going to leave you either slightly extended everywhere or vulnerable somewhere.”

Even this wouldn’t do critical damage to the RLF, but that’s very different from saying that it wouldn’t hurt.

Flatwell breathed in slowly, and then let it out equally slowly. His head tipped to the side, and his eyes shifted to look at the map he had on desk. “This is not going to be easy.”

“Unfortunately not.” I agreed. “With that said, I do have one option that might make things a bit easier for you.” I threw up a screen, marking a path across Belius. “This is the route that Marzan, the larger of the two corps, intends to take. You’ll note that it passes through the fifty-sixty Grid cluster. Given the timeline involved, it should be possible for me to insert the Sea Spider along that route. Marzan’s forces consist mostly of MTs by this point, and the Sea Spider will tear through an army of those in short order.”

Flatwell’s head tipped to the side, considering it. “The PCA will almost certainly attempt to destroy it once they locate it.” He points out, mostly thinking aloud. “Defeating an army will take long enough that they’ll be able to respond. You won’t be able to hide it under a Coral Storm.”

“If it distracts them or interferes with the blitz, then it’s all the better. It’s never been off standby duties, so there’s nothing tying it to the Firekeepers. As far as the PCA knows, the RLF is still keeping it in storage somewhere. If it’s destroyed... Well, it’s a loss, but it’s not irreplaceable.” Better the Sea Spider than whatever would result from five of the RLF’s bases being attacked. “I’ll have the Firekeepers ready to distract the PCA when the time comes, see if we can’t split the response a little. Unfortunately Flatwell, anything else I could do for you would show too much of our ties.”

“And that would escalate matters beyond control.” He nodded, already knowing the reasoning. He’d come up with half of it, after all. A moment later, he grabbed his datapad, flicking the screen on. “I’ll send the Strider to zone three. The Wall can handle itself. The pilots, I’ll have to split between everywhere else, and make sure that there’s enough support for all of them.”

“Right. I’ll send the Sea Spider immediately, and intercept when they start getting close. A few Antigens will let me narrow down their specific path rather than relying on just the general plan. I should be able to intercept them before they leave the area.” Hmm. The circumstances weren’t ideal, but this was the first time I was actually going to get to deploy the Sea Spider in real combat since I recovered it- though back then couldn’t really be considered ‘real combat’ when both Dolmayan and Freddie had been on hand in an already nearly completely ruined PCA base.

If only it was for more enjoyable reasons. It wasn’t quite right to find enjoyment in this, not for this reason.

Oh well. Nothing to it by this point. “Good luck then, Flatwell.” I stated, knowing very well that they were all in for some shit.

He gives a single huff of laughter, but there’s no joy in it at all. “We’ll need it.”