Armored Core 6: Cold Ghost

7. ARQUEBUS VISION

"Let me tell you a secret..."

Omar climbed into the core, as he had for the past month to start a new day with a new training or test. Except the air felt different, the staff were extra silent despite going through the typical process of checking and rechecking the systems and parameters with acknowledges making its round around the room. There's a hint of finality, a sense of dread within the room, but being professionals they do their assigned tasks with full diligence. The doctor had her 'avoid-eye-contact-unless-absolutely-necessary' face from the moment he'd walked into the room.

Omar took a deep breath once he sat down, a habit before any major undertaking, and remained still as the tech staff strapped him in and placed the helmet on his head. Omar, or Eclipse rather, knew the procedure by heart at this point, as one of the trainings was a drill on how to get in and out of the core in emergency situations. The order of the safety straps, the harness and most importantly the helmet with its various cables and tubes that links the AC with the pilot.

"... Tomorrow, you'll get into the core as usual, get the mission briefing like always and run through the systems check as the core simulates the AC environment and motion as all the previous times."

The HUD lights up as soon as the helmet clasps lock into place. The familiar view of the garage slowly materializing on screen. The mission briefing was loading and getting ready to play. Omar started the briefing when it flashed ready and he saw Arquebus's Logo animate on the screen before shifting to the side, followed by mission relevant images and details. The Core felt relatively cold, and he felt unusually drowsy.

"This a call to all mercenaries..."

"... Once the briefing is over, you'll wake up either in transit to or on Rubicon 3 in the AC that you picked for this mission. Except, as a Corporate licensed Mercenary, you won't get to choose and you'll be piloting our Corp Exclusive AC. This mission... is no simulation. Those who are slow or fail to realize that fact will face a gruesome death by either the Rubiconian forces, or the PCA."

He woke with a start, his body feeling stiff and cold, unable to clear his eyes of fluid, leaving his vision blurry only able to recognize the HUD in front of him but not the dark landscape beyond. As if on cue, the Core's temperature control system kicked in and raised the environment to acceptable levels, his helmet too had its own climate control system and breathed in cool but a few degrees warmer air against his face compared to the freezing chill he felt moments ago. The breeze was forceful enough that he could blink away the blurriness and clear his vision.

In front of him were 3 MTs with their spotlights checking the perimeter, he could also see his AC's shadow cast in front of him on the ground indicating a 4th right behind him. On the bottom of the screen flashed a status report reading "Establishing comm signal" followed by short bursts of static before the disembodied voices were clear.

"-round. This AC couldn't have been alone."

"Where did it even come from? There were no transports flying within the vicinity."

"SIR! I'm reading vital signs in the AC!"

That was all it took for Omar to run through the reactivation process and dash forward as the rest of the systems came online. The boosters sputtered a few times due to the cold start but eventually it evened out and the AC was skating steady around what looked a multi-level mountainous area. The weapon systems finally showed green and the compass at the bottom marked the MTs surrounding him.

"How did-? All units: Open Fire!"

The AC jumped further back from the incoming fire with a short and powerful burst from the boosters, taking negligible damage with some bullet pinging and bouncing harmlessly off the armor. Missiles were next, launched to chase the AC, and just as they were gaining on the target, a sudden burst from its shoulder boosters shoved the AC to the side, causing the missiles to overshoot their target and fly aimlessly behind it.