Chapter One

Earth

July 3, 3029

++Abandoned City++

++Operation: Marche Au Supplice++

"You seem so persistent even though you know you'll die in this desert!" Said a slightly annoyed Red Cap as the back gun on his quadruped armored core fired again at the Omer Science armored core, Null, No.30.

As the massive round flew at Null, he quick-dashed to the right. Hilarios was on top of a sunken building charging the duel kojima rifles mounted to his arms to fire at Null.

  "Red Cap, keep him in one place will ya?!" Said Hilarios as the rifles reached full charge.

  "Shut up! I've got this!" Shouted back Red Cap.

  "Focus Red Cap, don't get overconfident." Said Berlioz.

Red Cap grunted in response as he activated over boost and rammed Null directly, sending him flying into the side of a nearby building, where he stuck to the side.

  "Hilarios, he's stuck! Fire, FIRE NOW!!" Yelled Red Cap.

Hilarious smirked inside her armored core.

  "I see him, firing!" She stated.

Red Cap watched as two electric blue bolts of concentrated kojima flew past him and struck Null, destroying her armored core. They heard Null's pilot yell over the comms.

  "NOOOO!!!! It's no use, I'm grounded here. Noblesse Oblige, it's up to you now!"

Noblesse Oblige shot over to Hilarios at a blistering speed and hit him with the long-range laser blade on the armored cores right wrist.

  "Too slow..." Said Noblesse Oblige as he flew high into the air.

Hilarios' armored core was paralyzed by the powerful blow. He regained control, too late... Noblesse Oblige had already engaged his signature wing-laser canons and was aiming straight for Hilarios.

  "Gotcha..." He said as the lasers all fired at once and completely shredded the vulnerable Hilarious.

  "This is war, I've made my peace..." Said the pilot of Hilarios.

Berlioz saw her get vaporized and told the rest.

  "All units, Hilarios is down. We're down to three against one." He announced as he flew in Nobles Obliges direction.

A few seconds later, Roughcut gave the last news any LINX wants to hear.

  "Enemy reinforcements confirmed, it's Anatolia's merc." He said in a dark tone.

  "Anatolia? Oh right, it's that fossle." Said Red Cap in a smug voice.

  "Don't get cocky, I hear he's a skilled solider." Berlioz assured them.

  "Let's burry him." Replied Red Cap.

The mercenary shot straight for Red Cap, who, caught off guard by this action, was delt a heavy hit by the 07-MOONLIGHT attached to his left wrist.

  "Hmm, perhaps I underestimated you." Said Red Cap in a cold voice as his armored core restablized itself on the quadruped platform.

  "I doubt it." Said Roughcut as he seemed to fly out of nowhere and unload on the mercenary with both his weapons at once.

The mercenary lost balance for a split second but quick-dashed out of the proximity immediately. Noblesse Oblige came gliding on the sand covered ground and shot up as he went after Roughcut. He and Roughcut both battled it out in the air until Roughcut's thruster energy reserve was depleted, Noblesse Obliges power level not much better. The two free fell to the ground, Noblesse Oblige pulled the trigger on his rifle only to see he was out of ammo.

  "Shit!" He shouted.

  "Should I ease up and give you some breathing room?" Asked Roughcut in a terrible joking voice.

Roughcut, unfortunately, didn't see the next move coming. Noblesse Oblige used the last of his thruster power to launch him self at Roughcut. He activated his laser blade and sliced one of his armored core's arms clean off. The two slammed into the ground and Roughcut was crushed by Noblesse Oblige landing on top of him. Roughcut was able to say his last words before kojima entered his cabin and killed him.

  "You are strong..."

Noblesse Oblige, with no Primal Armor or P.A., was then hit directly in the back by the rear sniper rifle mounted to Red Cap, and his armored core fell over with a large hole in the back of it from where the round hit.

Red Cap jumped from the building he was stationed on and used his thrusters to cushion his landing.

  "You're next." He said in a grim voice.

  "Enemy Next destroyed, one left." Said Berlioz.

The mercenary shot around a building with Berlioz and Red Cap right behind him. He spun around and staring firing at Red Cap with his 01-HITMAN, while still sliding along the ground backwards. Red Cap's armored core shook violently as he was showered by massive machine gun rounds, and with low Primal Armor levels, it was only a matter of time...

  "Ha ha ha! You think you can beat both of us?!" He chortled.

  "Red Cap! Focus and take the left flank!" Yelled an agitated Berlioz.

Red Cap complied and dashed to Berlioz's left around a building. The mercenary, unfortunately, saw the movement and launched himself at incredible speed around the building just as Berlioz's OGOTO high-explosive shell whizzed by. But Berlioz wasn't a match for the mercenary's light-weight Eqbal (A large company in the game) style armored cores speed, and all he could do was get to the other side of the building as fast as he could and help his companion.

  "Red Cap, LOOK OUT!!" He shouted, but too late...

  "NO!!!! You walking junk heap!! Is this my fault?!" He shouted his last words at the mercenary.

Berlioz knew a man like the pilot of Red Cap would never say anything like that, and he assumed it signified his death. The mercenary flew over the building at Berlioz with his 07-MOONLIGHT blade at the ready.

  "It's just you and me now..." Said the mercenary.

Berlioz was slightly taken aback at the sudden speech.

  "So, the mercenary of Anatolia speaks? Hm, it's a shame they will be you're last words..." Replied Berlioz in a smug tone as his OGOTO cannon unfolded over his armored core's right shoulder.

The mercenary, for once, didn't see the shell as it was fired from Berlioz's gun, as it cut through the air towards his armored core. The round hit his armored core and blew it's head clean off without exploding. Literally, where the armored core's head should've been, there was nothing. Berlioz wasted no time in taking this chance to end the fight. He activated over boost and propelled himself at the other armored core, which was paralyzed from the deadly attack. What happed next was the most shocking thing Berlioz had ever seen in his lifetime of armored core warfare; the mercenary quick-dashed just bearly out of the way so Berlioz missed the stab he was going to do with the pointed front on his 04-MARVE.

  "What the hell?" He thought.

While his armored core was still recovering from the overpowered lunge, and with his Primal Armor drained from using over boost, he was attacked by the mercenary from behind. Even with no FCS central processing chip (which is installed in the now non-existent head of the mercenary's armored core), he was able to half-blindly swing his laser blade and stab the side of Berlioz's armored core, slicing his generator in half and almost puncturing his cockpit.

After countless decades of being a peerless warrior, Berlioz had to process the fact that he'd just been defeated. To his and most likely the mercenary's surprize, instead of throwing some nasty insult or anything angry, he said in a calm voice,

  "You're a fine warrior. Call me sentimental, but I wish we had met under different circumstances..."

A moment of silence passed before a reply came.

  "Indeed." Said the mercenary.

And without another word, the headless armored core of the mercenary flew into the air and disappeared from sight, leaving Berlioz in his destroyed armored core.

  "He truly was a warrior even I would call great. I hope he fairs well..." He thought as he sat inside the cabin of the Supplice with nothing to do but wait for any kojima in the area to eventualy kill him.

Berlioz played with a few of the Supplice's controlls to find that the head and eyesight was still operational. He slowly turned the muiltiple-eyed head to the right about fourty degrees. What he saw made Berlioz sigh in anoyance. A massive sandstorm was headed straght for the sunken city he was stranded at.

  "It's problably going to be a while before anything comes here, especaily with that sandstrom... In the mean time, I guess I'll get some shut-eye..." Berlioz thought as he rested his head and closed his eyes.

The howling winds that could be heard outside were soothing to him, so he smiled faintly as sleep started to overcome him.

~~~~~~~~~~

Berlioz slowly woke due to a faint humming sound that was mixing with the raging sandstorms winds. He got upright and activated the head and eyesight and turned the armored cores head from the right, to about thirty degrees to the left. There he spotted what looked like a large, glowing, ball of lavender purple colored light. Not believing what he was seeing, looked away from the light and rested his head. Just as he did, the humming started to get noticably louder. Berlioz, a little anoyed now, looked back at the light to see it had gotten a lot bigger, and was starting to suck in surounding sand. A few seconds later, he could feel the Supplice starting to get pulled into the lights pull. For the first time in decades, Berlioz panicked.

"What the hell is going on?! What is that?! Am I going to die this way?! FUCKING!!!" A hundred questions rang through his head as the Supplice was draged completly into the purple light.

  "What, the, FUUUCK?!?!" Berlioz shouted at he covered his eyes with his arms and the light engulfed him completly. Next Chapter: Bonus Chapter: Anatolia's Mercenary, Armored Core And Load-out Estimated time remaining: 20 Minutes