Armored Core 6: Cold Ghost

10. BUSINESS COST

D. Kouda let out a deep sigh, trying to expel all the annoyance and frustrations with the breath leaving her lungs. 'V.II' Snail was a pain to deal with, while bright and committed to Arquebus compared to the rest of the Vespers, his hubris was unbearable, especially knowing that practically speaking, he's untouchable since the Corporation wouldn't risk the lives of any senior manager to oversee operations on Rubicon 3. The solution was to assign one of the Mercenaries to act as one, and ideally it should've been 'V.I' Freud except he turned out to be the most unhinged pilot out of the entire roster. The others refused the position for one reason or another, no one wanting to play supervisor over the others which she yet to grasp why anyone would pass that up.

But she didn't have to worry or deal with those non-sense much longer, it took a long time but it was worth the wait. 'V.X' is planet side and had made contact with the Vespers, the whole unpleasantness with Snail was about integrating him into the Vespers and getting him augmented like the rest of them. 'V.II' argued about everything from his callsign 'V.X' instead of 'V.VII' that is yet to be filled, to his augmentation procedure and cost, to him having direct contact with Arquebus Command instead of going through proper channels, which is to say, through 'V.II' himself. Kouda managed to placate him by letting him pick the remaining spots between 'V.VI' and 'V.X' which should keep him occupied enough and satiate his ego for a while. In the meantime, preparations are to be made for the coming days; Kouda's ambitions and goals for Rubicon might be a personal agenda but they run in parallel with Arquebus' Vision. For that, she needed a firm control on whatever variables she could, if only just to steer things towards that common goal. She thought back on her conversations with 'V.X', as anticipated his performance weren't up to the level the other directors were hoping for, putting her in the spot for criticism and poor judgement, almost bad enough to lose her seat in the board of directors. As far as she's concerned, he was exactly the person for the things she needed done; not outstanding enough to be in demand for every crucial mission, not terrible enough to be a foot soldier in Arquebus' plans. The only point left to evaluate is whether or not he was capable enough to complete the tasks she would privately ask him to do. If his shortcuts are any indication of his high-level intuitions then chances are he'll be fine.

Either way, Arquebus have enough stars for their needs, one being Schneider's newest AC pilot "Rusty", a rising star within the Vespers. Kouda and 'V.X' can go about their own missions and surveys without command missing him too much.

"So, he's the new pilot that Arquebus Command wants to enlist into the Vespers..."

"At least he still has life in him, I'll give him that. I can't remember the last time I've seen that look in his eyes in any of us."

"No wonder Snail hates his guts, I don't think he had that look ever in his lifetime. Or maybe the augmentation will change that, as it did to us."

"We'll have to wait and see, the doctors said he'll be undergoing 4th Generation Augmentation under Snail's orders. Guess he doesn't want newbies edging him off his seat."

"Tough luck for him then, I'm getting my augmentation upgraded in the coming weeks, and Snail knows better than to argue with me."

"One thing that never made sense to me... Why did Command insist on calling him Vee Ten? We're still missing 3 numbers."

"Don't know. Even through our private intelligence channel, nothing came up. Best guess is 10 is a special number to Command, either as a start of something new... or some secret project."

"Secret, huh? So, Vee Ex rather than Vee Ten."

"Probably. 'V.X', the unknown number. Or non-existent. I'd hate to lose my number to a guy like him."