Disclaimer: See initial chapter


-IX-


"I guess as far as homes go, this isn't so bad. But then again, a pretty doghouse is still a doghouse."

Seated in a bar settled around the Alliance complex, Elijah felt his head lower toward his drink after the comment from his companion. 'How did I get myself into this?' He was quite confused by it all. No more than a few minutes ago, she, Zinaida, was holding a gun on him in an alley and now, they were sitting together having a drink. Surface-wise, having a drink with gorgeous young woman would be a good thing. And the sense of nostalgia was not lost on him either. But she seemed to be more than content to throw verbal barbs at him, to which he was becoming quite annoyed with.

"What do you want? Clearly, you didn't come here to kill me and I don't think you came all this way to throw insults."

She gave a light-hearted shrug "To be honest, I was curious. After our last encounter, I checked up on you, wanted to see what kind of lapdog you are." Taking a sip of her drink, she finished "And it turns out, a broken one."

His eyes rolling, Elijah felt himself growl. "Seriously, if this is all you came to do, you might as well have shot me earlier. You did say we would be enemies next we meet."

"That's on the battlefield" she replied. "Here, like this, doesn't count. Now where was I? Ah yes, broken dog; a far cry from your glory days as a Hand of God."

'This coming from someone who wasn't even a Raven before Heavenfall.' Still, it was best if she didn't know how much more irritated he was and manage to reply neutrally. "It sounds like you have me figured out then."

"You would think so. But…you saved my life."

Noticing the change in her voice, Elijah turned his head to her slightly, with his eyes peering solidly on her in a sidelong glance. Her expression was more subdued, somewhat distant and far different than the woman who was spouting insults at him a second ago.

"You saved my life and you didn't have to. That tells me that whoever you were before Heavenfall is still in there." She turned to him and locked gazes. "And that is the opponent I would prefer to face."

Turning back and gulping down the last of her drink, Zinaida stood and began to move away, but Elijah found himself asking her.

"Why?"

Stopping at the exit, the violet woman answered. "Because I believe…that Raven stands for something."


"Because I believe…that Raven stands for something."

Her words were still echoing in his head as his AC dropped from the sky, engaging combat mode. What was worse, he didn't even know why. He had never believed himself to have stood for anything, then or now. Before Heavenfall, he was just a Raven, one of many. Although he was a member of a top clan and reasonably skilled (if he did say so himself), he didn't really stand out all that much, at least not in comparison to many of his compatriots.

Two in particular…

Clearing his mind of the wayward thoughts, Elijah focused on the mission at hand. Oddly enough, the mission came directly from Alliance HQ and not from his operator. In the end, he supposed, a mission was a mission. But this mission had a certain nuisance attached to it.

-One of our main distribution centers has been taken over by an unknown group. Their attack occurred immediately after we had recaptured the facility from Vertex. We'd like you to eliminate the occupying force. Please avoid damaging any of the facility's key equipment once the battle starts.-

As it turned out, the distribution center he was sent to happened to be the Diogan Distribution Center.

Even at this point, he couldn't believe that he was back here again, taking on the same mission he had before, simply because the Alliance wasn't able to hold on to it right after he had gone through the trouble of recapturing it from Vertex the first time. He even had to take down a Raven to do it. The thought was very close to annoying for him. But at the very least, the only bright side to this was that he was more familiar with the terrain, although the mission would have him start a bit further up within the distribution center than before.

The downside was that it was probably better secured now than before…

In any event, he had a job to do and with that, -Havoc's- boosters ignited, moving the AC forward and making its way through and down the first ramp corridor. Reaching the chamber and flying over the low-wall gate, he met his first opposition, an OSTRISH MT. A few shot from this machine quickly put it down and Havoc ventured on without pause.

The next chamber contained a pair of flying drones which were also taken out quickly. The surprise came when, upon opening the gate to the next corridor, he was faced with an SSGB03-WALNUT, a MT shaped similarly like and OSTRISH, but slightly larger, mainly due to the large shoulder launchers it possessed, each one containing a set of large missiles.

One of which was coming at him right now!

Due to the relatively slow movements of the missile and the instinctually fast reflexes of the Raven, -Havoc- quickly sidestepped the damaging projectile, despite the little room there was to do so. Havoc didn't allow the MT to try to get another missile out as both machine guns rose up and quickly tore the MT to shreds. It wasn't until after the machine became rubble did Elijah allow a moment to process everything that had just happened and breathe a sigh of relief.

'That was close…'

Descending into the lower level, Elijah was faced with much of the same opposition as before and he dispatched them just as quickly, which made him feel more uncertain about this mission for two reasons. More than the sense of déjà vu he was getting, the facility itself showed no signs of damage within. His mission stated that the center had been taken over. Yet there were no signs of any sort of struggle or combat. If this place was taken over, whoever did it was very clean about it. And since that was more than unlikely, Elijah knew that something was wrong.

And again, the sense of déjà vu, especially upon reaching the gate leading to the outside…

The night sky that awaited him was clear, with the star twinkling above. It was a nice scene, but Elijah knew what was to come. And true enough, a black AC stepped out from behind the side of one of the bunkers. It was a middleweight machine, armed with a rifle, an energy blade, and grenade launchers on both sides of its back. A single red eye gleamed in the night as it turned toward -Havoc- and Elijah, gazing at him with sinister intent.


Name - Mollycoddle

AC - Pinch Beck

Profile - Once part of the Alliance Tactical Unit, he was later removed from it by Evangel for failing to meet the grade. He's a poorly skilled pilot who has trouble taking full advantage of his AC's setup. Rumor has it that Zinaida is out to get him.


-"It seems you are doing well. Too bad you were tricked…"-

Elijah didn't even have time to wonder what he meant as he rushed to evade the first round of attacks from the opposing AC. However, rifles were quite accurate and a few shots hit -Havoc- on the side. Returning fire, Elijah unloaded both machine guns on him, forcing -Pinch Beck- back and up into the air. -Havoc- made ready to pursue when the unfolding of back weaponry made Elijah pause and quickly strafe to the side. And not a moment too late as the fiery bolt of the grenade launch flared out from -Pinch Beck-, hitting the ground just behind -Havoc- and with the resulting concussive explosion partially throwing the AC to the side.

-"Give up! You can't defeat me!"-

Elijah grimaced as he narrowly evaded another grenade blast, all the while mentally rolling his eyes at Mollycoddle's comment. Pressing -Havoc- forward, Elijah decided to throw caution to the wind and activated his energy EO. Using it would put further limits on his maneuverability as the generator energy would deplete faster. But it would be worth it if he could get the enemy AC to back off and allow him to press the attack. And true enough, with -Havoc- unleashing multiple rounds of energy and solid fire, -Pinch Beck- was forced to retreat. -Havoc- continued on the barrage, advancing on Pinch Beck without letup, even when the enemy AC returned fire with its rifle.

-"I need backup right now."-

'Backup?' His FCS soon lit up with new threats and Elijah turned a sidelong glance to see the grenade launchers on the far wall swivel about and take aim at him. A second later, -Havoc- is outrunning the destructive barrage of grenade fire, not only from the cannons, but also from Mollycoddle as he returned to the fray to attack Elijah.

-"Is that all you've got?!"-

Maneuvering -Havoc- behind one of the bunkers, Elijah took in the situation. Facing both enemies at the same time would get him killed. He would have to take out those grenade turrets first before dealing with -Pinch Beck-. Actually he would have to do it while dealing with -Pinch Beck- because at that moment, the black AC flew around the bunker and resumed his attack on -Havoc-, forcing Elijah back out into the open and right into the lines of fire from the grenade launchers.

But rather than evade them, Elijah jetted -Havoc- right at them, just to get him close enough to shoot down the first turret. The remaining three swiveled toward him, but before Elijah was able to take down the second one before the remaining two fired on him. Strafing from the bolts, Elijah made ready to attack the next, but was struck from behind by -Pinch Beck's- rifle shots. Seeing no other option except to ignore him for the time being, Elijah continued his attack on the grenade turrets.

The third grenade turret was taken out just as it fired, just scorching -Havoc's- shoulder but nothing more. It was the fourth one really that made him as it fired while he was right in front of it. Fortunately, the turret's aim was misjudged and it only wound up blasting the ground just in from of the attacking AC, obscuring Elijah's vision briefly, but failing to deter him from shooting it to bits.

'And now back to you.'

Returning his attention to the enemy AC, -Havoc- was partially thrown off when -Pinch Beck- fired a grenade shell. Instinct once again caused him to just evade the shot and -Havoc- returned to its previous attack on the black AC, reactivating his EO to add to the damage as before. Despite the setup of his AC, Mollycoddle was not using it to its full potential and was quickly put in retreat once again. What Elijah found semi-amazing about it was the fact that he could see all of that in an enemy Raven.

This brief musing was cut short when his machine guns suddenly stopped firing. Blinking in disbelief, Elijah discovered that the ammo gauge on both his weapons were empty. It took him a moment to realize that he had used up a fair deal of ammo just getting there, plus having to use it on the grenade turrets. With a mental curse, Elijah pulled -Havoc- back as Mollycoddle regained control of the battle and fired on him. Without his machine guns, all he had left was his own grenade launcher and his EO. But he didn't have the option to use his grenade launcher the same as -Pinch Beck-, which means his AC would have to be stationary to use it, something which would very much get him killed now.

His only viable weapon would be his EO, but his EO was at its minimum and even though it was energy-based and could recharge, that would take time. And even fully charged, it would also take time for it to take down -Pinch Beck-, if he could pull it off without the enemy Raven getting lucky and taking him down. Still, if that was his only option, he would take…

HSSHHH!

A grenade bolt suddenly soared down from out of nowhere and blasted the black AC on the side. Elijah's eyes widened as a second black AC soared down from the cliff-side and unloaded a round of machine gun fire on -Pinch Beck-. The AC, still staggering from the first attack, was overwhelmed by the weapons fire so much that its right arm completely blew off. Still making a beeline toward -Pinch Beck-, the new AC suddenly lifted its left arm and it was at that point that Elijah recognized the AC as it lurched in and crushed -Pinch Beck's- head with said hand. While the AC was black, the hand and the forearm of the left arm were marked in crimson red.

-/-/-/-/-

"Hey, hey. I'm not here to fight. I just wanted to say that you got some talent. You have a good handle on the weapons and maneuverability, but you have to work on aim. No offense, but it sucks."

"Yeah, that's what Cain keeps telling me. That my aim his a little off."

"Well, don't worry about it. He's just afraid of being shot by his own partner. I...uhh, did that sometimes."

-/-/-/-/-

"Bloodhand…? Koemai?"

The new AC stepped back as -Pinch Beck- crumbled down to the ground in defeat. -Havoc- began to step forward, but halted when -Bloodhand- lifted up a machine gun toward him. This seemed to be the day for surprises and this was definitely no exception.

"Koemai. Come on, it's me, Elijah, remember?"

There was no response at first and Elijah found himself thinking tactically for a moment, only to realize that just like his situation against -Pinch Beck-, he had little to work with if he got into a fight against -Bloodhand-, who was more than armed to fight him and destroy him if he saw fit. But then the boosters of the dark AC flared and -Bloodhand- turned about, preparing to take off. But before it did, Elijah received a message from the Raven within.

-"You were set up, so I'll give you the bye this time. You will not have the same luck with me the next time."-