Armored Core: Warped Souls, Wired Minds (Uncensored)

Veil Of Uncertainty: Act 2 - Brother Louie, five years ago

5 YEARS AGO.
"Checking AMS stability, primal armor is at full capacity. Adjusting joints. Verifying camera quality"
Several soldiers check the system of a stationed 10 meter tall Next, a white and black unit.
"Connecting catapult sliders to bottom of the unit's legs. Attaching Vanguard overboost. Establishing communication link with pilot"
The soldiers speaks into a microphone attached to his helmet.
"How are things on your end, pilot Louie Moretti?"
The pilot is seated inside the cockpit as if he were riding a sportbike, both of his hands holding onto two handles. several photographs decorate the interior, photographs of his mom, dad and sister in Italy.
"I'll never forget what happened to them... I swear I'll get enough money. Enough money to get us out of this hellhole"
An exclamation mark appears in the cockpit's monitor, he taps it with his finger.
"Who is it?"
"I'm your operator for this mission, the Jarnefeldt company sent me to aid you in this mission. Just call me Trevor"
Two helicopters fly towards Louie's unit, carrying giant rifles held by cables. Louie maneuvers the hands of the Next, grabbing the rifles from the helicopters.
"This is your arsenal for today. You remember your mission briefing right? Your unit will be sent to aid nigerian soldiers who are fighting against an Arachnid-type Arms Fort, we code-named it Tarantula. We still have no information on which corporation developed the weapon. The nigerian soldiers are using first gen AC units for the assault, however most of the frontline has been destroyed by the Arms Fort. This is where you come in, a Next is enough to take down an entire Arms Forts, and I've read your records, looks like this will be your second"
The back boosters of Louie's unit open, and a countdown begins.
"Guess this is my time to leave, couldn't even take a 10 minute break. Louie Moretti, representative of the Jarnefeldt company, survivor of the Martian-Earth political conflict, and 8th pilot to bear the legendary title of White Glint! White Glint Mk. IV launching!"
The ground trembled beneath the machine's immense power as it was sent flying through the desert and mountains, a white glint in the night sky.
"How exactly big is the Arms Forts? And who's leading the assault on the Arms Forts?""
"The craft is 500 meters tall and has a total length of 2,200. The assault on the machine is being led by a mercenary known only by his callsign, Jackal. He's piloting a standard first generation AC, with barely no modifications. It has been his main combat craft for over 20 years, hell, he even took down massive MTs with it. But getting back to our main subject, the Arms Forts was first sighted in the forest, heading directly to the harcourt port, Jackal reunited the best pilots around these parts to aid him, he tried to make contact with the crew inside the Arms Fort but no response was received, and the Tarantula launched several heat seeking missiles that decimated the entire frontline and destroyed part of the city."
"But why only 1st generation machines, were there no 3rd and 4th generation ACs available?"
"Oooh boy, this is gonna be a long ass story. Y'know the city of Brex, right? It's located in what used to be Anatolia before the Great Destruction. Jackal had tried to basically free it from the control of the corporations 20 years ago with the help of several renowned pilots around the world. He knew how rotten the corporations were and about the bad stuff they did behind the scenes, the population has no control over themselves and the freedom in that city is a just an illusion manufactured by the corps. Jackal's assault on the corporations was going well, Brex was almost free from it's totalitarian government until the corporations deployed a giant weapon in the city, a massive bipedal robot that towered over the AC's and Nexts. The machine had destroyed several of Jackal's allies with only one blast, and this was enough to make him retreat, this event was named The Failed Liberation and citizens to this day still have no clue over what the reason for the assault was, as any information about it was heavily censored in Brex's private network. The corporations had decided that they woud no longer sell AC and Next parts to any pilot who had helped Jackal and survived the event, the corporations had denominated them as Scrappers, they could still be contracted but the quantity of Coams would instead be defined by how valuable the pilot was and not by his skill. Jackal is no longer allowed to enter Brex as he is considered a massive threat to the corporations and government's control over the city"
Louie looked at something enormous in the distance
"Hey Trevor, you seeing what I'm seeing?"
Louie zoomed in, the silhouette of the tarantula came into view, covered by a cloud of smoke, Louie gripped his handles firmly. A barrage of energy blasts was fired towards the White Glint. Louie used the overboosters to escape the blasts one by one.
"VOB nearly depleted, prepare for normal battle maneuvers!"
Another exclamation mark appeared in the cockpit's monitor, Louie quickly tapped it while maneuvering the Next.
"Who is it?"
"This is Jackal. I'll aid you from above"
"Above? You're not with the ground troops?"
"Let's just say I have a plan, destroy the turrets located on the top of the Arms Forts"
"Alright!"
"VOB depleted, purging!"
The VOB detached itself from the Next, crashing on the ground below. Louie activated the White Glint's Overboosters, the missiles chased him through the sky, as he went up and down and in circles. The smoke had finally cleared and the gargatuan Arms Forts finally revealed itself, it's 8 legs decorated with hatches that launched a high amount of heat seeking missiles. It's main body was big enough to house 3,000 people.
"I've got an Idea"
Louie deactivated the White Glint's boosters and slowly floated towards the left leg on the first row of the body, the missiles were getting closer and closer.
"Now!"
In a sudden movement, Louie activated the overboosters and flew vertically over the side of the leg, as the missile hit it one by one, causing it to disconnect from the joint that was holding it in place, creating a massive cloud of dust as it hit the ground. Louie got another call from Jackal.
"Avoid destroying the legs! focus on destroying the turrets. Those legs might fall on top of someone, we want to minimize the quantity of casualties in this battle, I'll order the ground troops to retreat later!"
"I won't repeat that mistake again, but when the hell are you arriving?"
"As I said, I'll aid you from above"
Louie steered the White Glint towards the roof of the Tarantula, the turrets aimed at his Next, they were surprisingly small, how could they be such a problem to Jackal?
The turrets moved and lined up horizontally against each, there's 10 turrets on the roof.
"Firing!"
Louie aimed the Next's rifle at the turrets, but the bullets didn't even penetrate the armor.
"What the?!"
The turrets suddenly began to connect with each other through small tubes on their sides, they transformed into something that resembled a 5 meter tall humanoid form similar to a 1st gen AC.
"What the hell is this thing?!"
The amalgamation fired it's bullets at the White Glint, Louie combined vertical and horizontal movement to dodge the bullets that were being fired from every direction possible.
"Switching to back missiles!"
Louie fired missiles at the amalgamation, but they simply did no damage, the machine was protected by a strong primal armor, greater than the primal armor of his White Glint.
"Louie! We detected something coming towards the Tarantula's direction, it seems to have come from... outer space?!"
"What?!"
Louie looked up, a giant ball of fire was heading straight to the Amalgamation he was fighting against, he zoomed in on the fire ball with the camera of his Next, and there was simply no way to deny if what he was seeing was truly real.
"It's an AC! First gen!"
"What?! There's no way a first gen can survive a reentry, that's impossible!"
Louie got another call from Jackal again.
"I told you I'd be helping from above"
"Wait, you were all the way up in space?! How?!"
"Let's just say that I have my connections"
Jackal's AC hit the amalgamation with full force, breaking it's primal armor as his AC entered the interior of the Tarantula for a brief moment and went back to the exterior of it. Jackal turned his AC around as it was falling .
"That height! Jackal you're not gonna survive from that height!"
"Don't worry, I always have my backup plans!"
He aimed his AC's at one of the Tarantula's legs, Two grappling hooks launched from the shoulders of his AC, attaching themselves and bringing him towards it.
"That's amazing! How did you incorporate that into an AC?!"
"A magician like me never reveals his secrets"
Jackal's AC steered vertically on the Tarantula's leg, using his grappling hook as way of crawling towards the roof.
"Were gonna bring this thing down, White Glint pilot"
"What about the ground troops?"
"I've ordered them to retreat and evacuate anyone who's still alive down there. You don't gotta worry about the damage down there"
The white glint circled around the Tarantula, the missiles hit the legs and they fell one by one, Jackal ripped off the armor plate of the leg he was crawling on and used it as a skateboard to slide safely to the ground while it fell. And with nothing to support it, the Tarantula's main body fell to the ground, but things were far from over.
"Hostile activity from the Tarantula has ceased, commencing verification of interior"
Louie entered the inside of the Tarantula through the hole that Jackal had created on it's roof, Jackal followed behind. There was barely any illumination, it felt as if the two were walking through a endless corridor of massive size. There seems to be no sign of human life on the craft. The two kept steering their massive machines, looking for the cockpit of this arachnid-fortress, they had found a massive gate in the lower floor of the craft, and with no hesitation, White Glint destroyed the gate with a kick, but the two were greeted with something that simply couldn't belong to this world, there was no way it was part of earth's ecosystem, it was alien-like in anatomy.
"What the hell is that thing?!"
In front of the two stood a capsule, containing an alien-like creature that could swallow an entire human, it was like a mix of an octopus with an hermit crab. It was covered in a blue glowing liquid, tubes were attached to what could possibly be it's brain. A name was written on the top of the capsule, Louie zoomed in on it.
"AMIDA? What could that even mean?"
Jackal didn't respond.
"Jackal?"
Jackal's AC turned to the White Glint.
"You have to get this thing outta here now, that thing right there is dangerous and whatever that blue liquid is cannot be good. Fly back to your HQ and deliver the specimen. That thing probably has diseases unknown to humanity. Something's fishy going on"
"Sure, but you'll have to attach the capsule to my White Glint first"
"No problem"
Jackal steered his AC towards the capsule, gently grabbing it with it's mechanical arms.
"The hole on the back of your Next's upper torso will connect itself to the capsule, think of it has backpack"
The capsule connected itself to the White glint, it was quite heavy even for the mighty Next.
"I hope we get to see each other again, as allies hopefully"
Louie extended the righr arm of his Next. Jackal did the same with the left arm if his AC.
"So I guess this is goodbye then"
The two pilots simulated a handshake between them, using their machines.
"Be careful out there, White Glint"
"Same for you"
Both pilots parted ways.
Louie flew over the harcourt port, making his way back to the HQ, half of the city was covered in wreckage from the fight against the Tarantula, the roads were filled wtih destroyed 1st gen AC units, Louie received a call request from Trevor.
"That thing that you're carrying on your back, do you think it's alien life or from our own planet?"
"Can't really say that for sure"
"We'll have to examine the blue liquid, we'll get some scientists to do an autopsy on it's corpse, it's still alive inside that capsule isn't it?"
"Definitely, but it seems to be in some sort of stasis"
"Interesting... that creature could -ERROR, CONNECTION TERMINATED"
"Hello? Hello? Trevor? What the hell happened?!"
Louie was about to activate the White Glint's Glint's Overboosters, but he knew that the heat produced from the thrusters could melt the capsule and damage the specimen inside. He tried to contact Trevor and see if it was just a connection error.
"Killing *static* crew! *static* -ERROR, CONNECTION TERMINATED-"
"Trevor?! Trevor?!"
Louie could see a cloud of smoke forming in the distance, it was coming from the HQ.
"There's no way, were being attacked?! Is it because of this?!"
With no warning, the left leg of the White Glint was split in two. But no hostile activity appeared on Louie's radar, it wasn't even jammed due to an ECM.
"There's no way, how?!"
Louie maneuvered the White Glint and made sure that the capsule didn't hit the ground. He kneeled down the machine, using it's left hand to support the missing leg, moving it's head back and forth.
"Where could the enemy be? Where could he be?!"
Several red glowing lights surrounded the White Glint.
"I won't go down not like this!"
Even with a missing leg, Louie fought back against the enemy crafts, they seemed to heavily modified 4th gen ACs, Louie fired everything he got until all the enemies in his radar disappeared. A black and red Next landed in front of him but it didn't even appear on his radar.
"What the hell do you want"
"I've come to take what's of my right, that creature belongs to the corp-"
Louie fired every bullet round into the Next's core, surviving was the only thing that mattered in his mind. There was no way he could lose, not after all his hardwork to get enough money so that he and his sister can leave Earth and go to Mars, not after helping Jackal take down the Tarantula.
Louie heard a loud thruster sound behind him and before he could react, White Glint had lost it's right leg.
"I've come to take what's of my right"
Louie turned the White Glint's torso 360° and fired his weapons at the Next, it was the same one and the voice of the pilot was the same.
"Who the hell are you?!"
"You're not the type that gives up easily, I like it when my prey does that. Unfortunately my orders aren't exactly to wipe your existence of this planet. The corporations seem to have taken a liking towards you"
"What the hell do you mean?! you bastard!"
"Forget everything that you have achieved in the past years, they no longer matter!"
The black Next was about to stomp the White Glint's core, Louie evaded it a sideboost to the right.
"You won't kill me!"
Louie pressed a button that disconnected the capsule from the White Glint's back, now free to use his overboost he charged at the enemy.
"You son of a bitch!"
The black Next was ready to split the White Glint in half with his moonlight blades, but something was off, a green light was emanating from it's core, he knew exactly what this was.
"Kojima particles?! I thought those types of weapons were banned?!"
The White Glint wrapped it's arms around the Black Next and the two machines were surrounded by a glowing green sphere that desintegrated everything surrounding them. Louie was protected from the contamination inside the cockpit of the White Glint, it's primal armor was protecting him by draining the kojima particles. but the same could not be said to the pilot that he was fighting against, the only thing that was left of him was a burning pile of scrap. Louie looked around, now realizing the consequences of his action.
"The capsule!"
Louie looked around, a surprised expression forming on his face, the capsule somehow had survived the kojima explosion.
"I need to bring it to HQ..."
Louie's consciousness was fading away, the battle had completely drained him and his machine was no longer capable of walking and flying. He fell inside his cockpit, and looked at the photographs as his eyes closed.
"I swear... I'll... get enough money..."
Military trucks arrived at the scene, surrounding the White
Glint's wreckage, The men in the truck were wearing Hazmat suits, more than 30.
Two of them engaged in a conversation.
"Our objective is to retrieve the specimen and bring it back to HQ, we'll analyze the data we got from the attack on Harcourt port"
"What about the White Glint pilot. Shall we kill them?"
"The corporation requested that the pilot should be brought alive to the surgery room, the order we gave to send the creature here was our way of bringing him to us"
"What do we do with the frame?"
"This is an order officially given by Lord Anthony. Destroy it, burn everything inside, make sure nothing's left of it. Tonight this White Glint's story comes to it's end"