There are only two ways to deal with an enemy in war:
- Reason with them.
- Use a bigger gun.
-General Gou’rii N’outah, Father of Duh’rahn N’outah
Nordan Tyrsis Airfield, Nordan Tyrsis, Former Tyrsis Imperium
11:00 EPT
There was a flurry of activity in the airfield in the north of the former Tyrsis Imperium a constant stream of Dannistrian troops and hardware were loaded onto planes and prepared to leave the wasteland that was their base for the last two years. NCOs looked around and shouted orders to load various things in various places or to board waiting aircraft. Every few minutes, another plane would either take off or land, providing the backdrop to the operation. It was meant to be an orderly transition of responisbility. Instead it was more like a panicked last minute evacuation. The infamous Captain Lann’hus was overseeing the operation as General Nh’gouzii, the current commander of all forces in Tyrsis appeared.
“It’s been done,” the General stated, “The politicians at Dannistra Onn have signed the agreement. The Drakkengard troops will be taking over this airfield once we are gone and their troops will be moving in to take over the peacekeeping operation. Effectively, the land will be theirs.”
“I see,” Captain Lann’hus murmured as he scrawled a few notes of supplies on a clipboard he held, “Do they expect us to give them a red carpet welcome sir?”
“No…I think they would be offended at such a grandiose gesture,” the general joked, “But on a serious point, we don’t have time for pleasentaries. We still got a lot of work to do and it isn’t getting any easier.”
“Agreed,” the captain said as he ticked off another item, “I hear that AC prototype that kid piloted a while back is due to be back in operation.”
“Along with the other two. Yeah.”
“And I also heard in return for the Drakkengard taking over this forsakken wasteland, we will be giving them a share of the advanced AC tech we have.”
“Officially, it was going to be given anyway as the AC concept is a joint research project between the two nations. Unofficially, let’s just say you are not far off the mark.”
As General Nh’gouzii spoke, a truck loaded with a large object covered in a tarpaulin moved slowly by. A label on the side marked it as “AC Special Unit”.
“And speak of Neva’lu…” Nh’gouzii remarked ironically. The truck moved on as Nh’gouzii turned away.
“I’ll leave the rest of the operation to you. I need to go get confirmation from the Kelssek Government that they will work with the Drakken troops or not,” he said as he walked away.
Former Drakkengard-Tyrsis border
11:00 EPT
As if it was an oversized military parade, hordes of military vehicles and mechas cross the ever peaceful southern border for the first time in over a century before spreading themselves over the land, and take their new posts.
Over the sky and coast, similar scenes are saw, as flights of aircrafts and warship fleets proceed with the claiming of Tyrsis.
On the space, new satellites are launched and shuttles repositioned, in order to give the new territory the same surveillance and security enjoyed by rest of Drakkengard.
Near Nordan Tyrsis Airfield an hypersonic bomber (think XB-70), previously adapted to work as transport aircraft, hails them asking for landing clearance.
As the Drakken bomber came in to land, Captain Lann’hus smirked.
“And here they come,” he murmured as the plane touched down and taxied over to the airfield apron. Lann’hus then put the handset of his radio to his face.
“Lann’hus to November Charlie Zero One, over.”
“November Charlie Zero One, we hear you, over.”
“Prepare to stand down and relinquish command of Nordan Tyrsis Airfield, sectors one through five, over.”
“Roger wilco. November Charlie Zero One will relinquish sectors one through five. Anything else, over?”
“Please bring out the locked case with the ‘special’ items in it. That is all. Lann’hus out.”
The bomber finally slowed to a halt on the apron. Lann’hus walked over slowly to the bomber and waited silently as a set of stairs was moved to the side of the aircraft, allowing anyone onboard to disembark.
As the stairs were set, the aircraft opened its belly, dropping nearly a company worth of people and gear instead of bombs on Tyrsis soil.
Soon the differences between them become obvious as thet started forming themselves in separated platoons by function.
The 5 officers among them stepped forward to salute Captain Lann’hus and senior among them said:
“Captain Hans Müller, Uranium Guard, reporting for duty. I request permission to take over command of this airfield in the name of Drakkengard.”
“At ease Muller,” Lann’hus stated in a slightly dismissive tone, waving his hand to them, “The airfield will be slowly turned over to your command. We still have a large amount of equipment left to shift. Plus I believe you are here to see the demonstration of our new toy, I presume?”
Lann’hus indicated the mysterious truck with the tarpaulin that he had saw earlier. Several soldiers were still doing work to the object underneath the cover, resulting in a moment reminiscent of the Keystone Cops where one of them fell over and knocked two others in a domino effect, causing the others to shout random Dannistrian obscenities in exasperation. This in turn caused several tools to fall over, causing further issues. Lann’hus sighed.
“Excuse me, Captain Muller,” Lann’hus said as he walked over to the group and started shouting at them with more insults of his own. The soldiers gradually sorted themselves out and lined up in a more orderly group. Lann’hus returned to Muller and sighed.
“Sorry 'bout that. It is hard to find good help these days.”
“I understand. We can wait to take command over the airfield. Our forces are still being mobilized to this area after all. And yes, we all would like to see the new AC tech, although only them”… and he gestured to a platoon composed mainly of scientists “…are required to do so. The rest of us are here to man this airfield, as it was chosen as one of the temporary HQ for the takeover.” answered Muller
As Lann’hus apologized for the incident Muller replied
“Don´t worry. Accidents happens. Now may we be directed to the AC demonstration?”
OOC: Yup, Muller has no sense of humour… But the lead scientist will be different 
Lann’hus nodded.
“Of course, this way,” he gestured towards the truck with the tarpaulin. The Drakken scientists followed him over to the truck. As they walked over, a second enclosed truck arrived and parked up alongside the first one.[hr]Fasdfjhsjkdfnjhfedgbnjknjasdnf!
“Kah’lad?”
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“Kah’lad?”
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“Kah’lad?! Is something wrong?”
Kah’lad opened his eyes. The Raven’s chief medical officer was looking at him with a concerned face. Kah’lad sighed.
“I’m fine,” he replied, “At least…I was OK. Then I started hearing those voices again.”
“You are pushing yourself too much, that’s why,” the doctor said as she injected him using an autoinjector, “This medication should suppress the more problematic side effects of those implants but you really need to take it easy. The more stressed out you get, the more severe the voices.”
“I’ll keep that in mind doc. It’s not easy when you are back in a potential warzone.”
“Don’t worry. Just keep calm and everything will be all right. Although to be fair if it was up to me, I’d not be allowing you back in an AC now. Not especially that one…”
The doctor was interrupted by the door of the truck opening.
“So doc, how’s our star Raven?” the familiar voice of Colonel Jackson asked.
“He is OK but don’t push him. He is showing signs of mental stress again.”
“I’ll try not to push him too much,” Colonel Jackson said, before beckoning to Kah’lad.
“Shall we go?”[hr]Lann’hus and the Drakkengard delegation waited as Colonel Jackson and Kah’lad disembarked from the truck and walked towards them. Lann’hus saluted.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Colonel Jackson, head of the project. And I believe this is Private Kah’lad Forr’sith, one of the enhanced ‘Plus Ravens’ and strongest candidate for the project. Now, before we begin the demonstration, any questions?” Lann’hus asked.
Even though from a different military, Muller saluted as well to colonel Jackson but when Lann’hus asked for questions a sing-song voice was heard…
“I have a few questions, dear captain… First, could you explain in what consist this ‘Plus Raven’ enhacement? and Second… Are you single?” said a gorgeous asian woman dressed in a lab coat and a uniform made for someone much smaller…
Meanwhile, a silent Muller seemed to get redder by the second…
And after a sigh another voice was heard
“Is this kid all right? He seems disturbed…” Asked a boy younger than Kah’lad, but with officer clothes, while pointing at him
By this time, Muller was getting purple…
Lann’hus looked at Kah’lad, then turned to Jackson, then back to Kah’lad and Jackson again. Jackson nodded.
“Private Forr’sith is fine,” Jackson answered, “If he wasn’t, we would not allow him onto the field.”
Kah’lad only nodded slightly.
“As for what the ‘Plus Raven’ enhancement program is, the short answer is that it is an attempt to augment a Raven’s abilities to pilot an Armored Core unit and react better to their environment. The Raven being the term used for an AC pilot, as you will know. We will give a more detailed briefing on it in the conference meeting room in the airfield control centre, but that is the gist of it. It involves a certain amount of surgery to enhance the pilot, however a lot of this is in an experimental stage. So the process is not refined as much as we would like but it is slowly getting there. Please…if you follow me to the conference room we will be able to give a more detailed briefing,” Jackson pointed to the building to the side of the airfield apron.
Muller replied to Colonel Jackson
“Excuse us for this breach of etiquette. But unfortunately some of our brightest soldiers are also the most eccentric…”
Then he turned to his troops, screamed “I want all platoons in formation, now!” and turned back to Jackson saying “Please, lead the way, sir.”
While their followed the Dannistriaans, Ai (the hot asian scientinst) and Friedrick (the kid officer) discussed the events so far
“Wow, Friedrick. You surely outdone me this time. Calling their Raven plus disturbed was crazy. Even i didn´t knew tha Muller could get that shade of purple…” said her almost giggling
“I´m not playing games here, Ai. I just said what i felt. A psychic like myself can feel his mind suffering. Such mental stress might break him.” replied Friedrick in a cold tone.
“Baka. You should be nicer to me… But now i´m worried about Kah’lad. Maybe we can talk privately with them later.” continued Ai as they went
As the group entered the conference area, Kah’lad sighed.
“Something up?,” Jackson asked. Kah’lad only shrugged.
“Call it a hunch,” he said, “But I get the feeling that something isn’t right. I don’t know what it is but I got this gut feeling there is something wrong.”
“Don’t worry,” Jackson tried to reassure Kah’lad, “We got enough back up support should the worst happen.”
“Let’s hope we don’t need it,” Kah’lad muttered.
As the group entered the conference room, a soldier in the room closed the blinds and dimmed the lights. after evryone was seated, Jackson walked to the top of the room and started up a nearby projector unit.
“OK, the point of the Plus Raven project is to overcome the lack of finesse and to allow greater control over these clunky beasts without taking a human out of the control loop.”
The projector proceeded to show several diagrams and x-ray images of metal wiring and minature circuitry embedded within several people.
“The point of the Plus Raven project is to allow a Raven better control and reaction time over piloting an AC through the use of a direct neural interface. This involves surgically implanting a special set of electrodes to enable the AC’s main computer to read the control inputs from the Raven him or herself. We have refined the process to an extent that there is only a 30% rejection rate by the body.”
At this point the delegation was given out a thick handout on the subject.
“This is only part of the story. We need to train the newly implanted ‘Plus Ravens’ to mentally prepare themselves so they don’t needlessly give off neural signals that may interfere with the computer. This requires much rigourous mental exercising and selection to find suitable candidates. The results are in the handout and speak for themselves. In general though, we see a 50% average increase in reaction times and 35% increase in target kills.”
Jackson paused.
“Any questions so far?”
Ai Jing raises her hand and says: "Two actually. First, what happens to the rejected 30%? And how long the whole procedure takes, from normal raven to trained plus?
Shocked and relieved that Ai actually made two relevant questions without a funny remark, both Muller and Friedrick almost cried of joy…
Jackson looked almost confused at the reactions of Muller and Friedrick but continued regardless.
“The 30% who end up rejecting the implants are nursed back to health as best as we can and returned to active duties in either normal Raven piloting or other army duties…”[hr]Several Months Earlier, Location Unknown, Somewhere in Dannistaan
There was a loud scream and the movement of several medical personnel as equipment beeped with increasing urgency.
“We need 500 mls of saline solution now!”
“We are loosing him! Neural synchronisation 64% and dropping!”
“Someone get some more bandages! There is a lot of blood here!”
“Neural synchronisation 61% and dropping!”
“Dammit, someone clamp that blood vessel!”
“Neural synchronisation 58% and dropping!”
The hospital equipment beeped faster to denote the impending point of no return as the doctors and nurses struggled to save the Raven who had recently undergone surgical procedure to install the implants. At first things seemed OK, but then his health steadily worsened and the extremities of his limbs started turning purple then black as his body started to reject the implants. This resulted in much panic and confusion as the hospital personnel tried to stop his condition deteriorating further.
“OK! OK! I think we got it! His bleeding is slowing!”
“Neural synchronisation 42% and steadying…”
“Man, 42%? He’ll be lucky if he comes out of this with mild stroke symptoms.”
“OK people, keep a close eye on him…someone’s got to answer for this program…inform Colonel Jackson immediately…”[hr]Colonel Jackson paused.
“However, I will admit there are a…small…number of cases where the Raven may encounter some lasting negative effects. Our medical personnel at this point do all they can to rehabilitate him or her…”
He glanced at Kah’lad, who’s face showed signs of a slight frown.
“As for the length of the procedure, it takes around 3 months on average. Our star candidate, Private Forr’sith here, showed much talent and was able to go through it in 2 months. We are sure we can steadily reduce the time to 1 month. Our main obstacle is the lack of advanced surgical techniques. I must admit some of the conversion and training process is akin to cracking a walnut with a sledgehammer. But in time, we can and already are refining the process. The full details, again, are in the handouts…Any further questions?” Jackson asked as he looked around the room.
“No, that´ll be enough for now, dear Colonel” said a smiling Ai that continued “However i believe my country will be reluctant to risk its best pilots in this procedure if the percentage of subjects with lasting negative effects is not properly quantified.”
Muller and Friedrick, in harmony, sighed when Ai said dear and gasped when she complained about the lack of percentage.
Friedrick quickly raised from his sit and said: “Please apologize Liuetenant Jing for being so disrespectful to a superior officer, sir. She can be too… intense, when something catches her interest…”
Ai looks to Friedrick with an annoyed face, shows him her tongue, turns to Jackson and says “I didn´t meant to be disrespectful, Colonel. In fact, i go further into saying that we are extremely interested in help with this new technology development. And while surgery isn´t exactly our main expertise, i recall a project of ours that , although unrelated, might give us some input on how to solve the surgery problems. I can access that data if you request.”
“Any help is useful,” Colonel Jackson replied, “We appreciate any assistance you can give. So if you can provide that data, it will be very useful.”
Jackson then brought up another slide on the projector.
“Before we go out and see the demonstration, I would like to advise you quickly of the second element of it. It is all very well making our Ravens more able to pilot AC units quicker, but ultimately there comes a point where we need to improve the ACs themselves. Behold…”
A picture of a large white mech appears on the slide projector. Although looking mostly angular like other ACs, it seemed to have organic looking wing ribs like those of a bird.
“AC Ne’valu 1.5…our latest iteration of the Next Generation Armored Core program. This is our first full application of the artificial muscle technology we developed in our laboratories several years ago. In previous AC prototypes, the arm and leg parts were only partially powered by artificial muscles with the rest being provided by convention hydraulics or pneumatics. This is the first AC to have locomotion purely powered by artificial muscle tech. We believe it will allow us greater flexibility and faster movement compared to conventional ACs. With enough refinement, we think we can have full production models running in 10 years. Maybe 7 if we can find breakthroughs quickly enough. Any further questions?”
“Okay Colonel. You’ll be receiving our studies about cybernetics very soon. They’re not as advanced as we’d like, but might help with the surgeries.” said a smiling Jing.
After being show the pics of the Ne’valu, Friedrick whispered: “I want it…”
Änd Muller spoke: “Excuse me Colonel. I’d like to ask if the change for artificial muscles didn’t compromised the AC hardiness.”
“The hardiness of an AC is not directly correlated to the hardness of the material it is made from,” Jackson said, “I can assure you, Captain Muller, that the changeover to artificial muscle technology does not compromise the toughness of the AC. In fact it improves it as the artificial muscles make use of an artificial blood-like repair paste that can at worse limit the damage and at best repair and restore movement to a damaged AC part. It will of course not be left exposed normally. As with current AC parts, all of the internal muscle mechanisms will be covered with the standard metal armour plating.”
An aide entered the room and whispered to Jackson briefly, then hurried out. Jackson smiled.
“It would appear the demonstration has been set up and ready to go. Shall we?”
Jackson exited followed by everyone else. Meanwhile Kah’lad allowed everyone else to leave first before standning.
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Kah’lad could once again hear the stream of discordant voices fill his head once more. He was only just able to shake off the feeling briefly during the meeting but now it was gradually building up once more, forcing him to shake his head as he got up.
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Kah’lad grunted in pain as he clutched his head once more. He tried not to show too much of the strain but knew eventually the voices would overwhelm him. The chief medical officer turned around and right away noticed the problem.
“Kah’lad? You OK?”
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“Urgh…to be honest…not really…” Kah’lad managed to struggle. The medical officer produced an autoinjector and placed it against Kah’lad’s neck, administering a dose of medication. The voices inside Kah’lad’s head subsided once more.
“Ah…thanks Doc…” Kah’lad manged before straightening up and walking forward once more. The doctor nodded, whispering, “I’ll give you some auto syringes with some more suppressant medication. Try not to take them as using them too often can dissipate the effect of later doses.”
Kah’lad nodded and continued walking. Eventually the group reached the truck from earlier. This time the tarpaulin had been removed to reveal a large gleaming white AC.
“Ne’valu,” Jackson stated, “The name of the Dannistrian equivalent to Satan. We named the prototype artificial muscle tech AC that because it moved in an unnaturally organic and fluid way compared to previous ACs. With this, it will provide a great step forward for mech technology. Now, before we begin, any further questions?”
“No, sir. No questions.” says Muller
“Yes, please start it, i want to see it moving!” says an excited Friedrick, that them blushes because of his boyish behavior
“Oooh, that´s was so cute, Friedrick” teases Ai
Friedrich and Muller only sighs in answer to that…
As the group approached the AC prototype, a soldier asked the group to stand back.
“We’re keeping this area designated as the safe area in case things do go wrong. You don’t want to know what happened the last time the AC prototype went out of control.”
Jackson nodded. He then turned to Kah’lad.
“Show us what you can do Kah’lad,” he said. Kah’lad nodded and walked slowly to the AC. On entering the cockpit he sat down, grabbed a connector plate attached to the seat and placed it against the back of his neck where it stuck magnetically.
“Magnetic connector,” explained Jackson, “A big improvement over the old plug connectors which would cause septic wounds.”
Kah’lad pressed a few switches on the cockpit, causing the cockpit hatches to slam shut. Closing his eyes in concentration, he then made the AC stand up without touching the controls.
“Main System…engaging DNI test mode” the AC computer’s disembodied voice said. Kah’lad then made the AC walk slowly away from the crowd before turning back on the spot. He then flicked the switch to open the cockpit and stood up out the hatch, the connector still attached to his neck. Holding up his hands to the crowd, he made the AC walk around without touching any of the controls and with his eyes closed. He then stopped the mech in front of the crowd.
“He shouldn´t pilot it now. His mind is shakened…” whispered a worried Friedrick
“Let´s wait the end of the demonstration and hope for the best… But, Friedrick, you think you could do something if he lose control?” answered Ai
“Mind control him, you say? We´re decades from that… Even though we´re a little older than the magic branch, we´re on experimental phase as well. All i can do is try to sooth his mind and hope that he can regain control. But with luck, this won´t be needed.”
“Would you both stop and pay attention to the demonstration” says Muller
“Aye, sir!” both reply