12.1
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For just about anybody else, upgrading Augmentations from the old generations to the newest would be a very simple process. Take the C6 injections and wait.
In absolute truth, Raven was likely no different. C6 Augmentations were gradual and thorough.
Even so, however, for Raven in particular, I could allow absolutely nothing to go wrong. Therefo...
2025-06-30 12:45:30 +0000 UTC View Post12.0
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The post-war plans had been utterly meticulous.
They had been assembled over the course of years. Data had been gathered. Information had been compared. Projections had been formed. Refinements had been made continuously.
Changes had been made almost as often, too. Not big ones, mind. They were small changes instead, taking into account what had...
2025-06-26 14:33:27 +0000 UTC View Post11.8
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With a brand new entranceway, it took Gamma Squad absolutely no time at all to make their way in.
The sheer depth that the UW-CO had penetrated provided, entirely unintentionally, easy access to a lot of the Grid’s internals. A brand new corridor had been burned through multiple levels, multiple sections, and multiple zones. Maneuvering within this ...
2025-06-24 14:17:11 +0000 UTC View Post11.7
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Assault Armour, at close range, was spectacularly dangerous. All that energy, the dangerous oscillation, the destructive interference, released in a single burst.
How could it not be dangerous? How could it not be so spectacular?
In perfect condition the CATAPHRACT was armoured enough to withstand an Armored Core’s Assault Ar...
2025-06-20 13:27:57 +0000 UTC View Post11.6
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A wall of metal blasted towards Raven and Ayre. Both of them split up, one going left and the other going right.
CATAPHRACT BALAM went straight through the middle of them, Boosters flaring with a truly obscene amount of energy. Michigan did not slow down. Instead, the machine’s wheels turned and twisted, rearranging. More Boosters ignited a...
2025-06-18 14:10:36 +0000 UTC View Post11.5
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The only thing that had stopped me from just outright obliterating Arquebus and Balam via orbital bombardment was the optics of that situation. It was generally rather frowned upon in the Human Sphere to be so utterly free with weapons of mass destruction, though there were always exceptions.
Doing it to the PCA was simple irony. Everybody could appre...
2025-06-16 13:23:52 +0000 UTC View Post11.4
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Freud’s drones streamed out again, moving once more to orbit his AC. He held off on firing for the moment, however.
Instead, it was his blade that lit up again.
Dolmayan obliged, his own blade flaring. Both of them made simultaneous flicks, sending a pair of preliminary Bladewaves at each other. Another detonation occurred, but Freud didn’t ...
2025-06-12 13:22:32 +0000 UTC View Post11.3
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This time around, it was Dolmayan who took the first shot, though ‘shot’ wasn’t quite accurate. He chose to attack with the Coral Oscillator on his left arm, the weapon making a brief, but piercing, shriek as it activated.
METS ASTGHIK’s arm was flung from right to left. The Oscillator glowed intensely, pulsating with crimson lightning. Coral ...
2025-06-10 13:00:24 +0000 UTC View Post11.2
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With the Enforcement System’s Mainframe under my control, there was nothing to even slow down my army from leaving Watchpoint Alpha behind.
I simply opened all the doors and commanded all the machines to stand aside.
And so, up they came. A flood of C-Weapons, emerging from the cavern underneath the mainframe.
The first ones out...
2025-06-06 10:50:42 +0000 UTC View Post11.1
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It was sheer irony that the most protected and most important part of the PCA’s entire apparatus was also the most vulnerable, to me.
It was something I found greatly amusing. I could have, at any point in time, simply reached in and ripped out the heart of the beast. Put an end to it all... I had refrained, however, because it had never been the ri...
2025-06-04 21:02:48 +0000 UTC View Post11.0
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Alright.
Alright alright alright.
Branch is alive, but no longer active. The PCA is moving in the way that I need them to move. Arquebus and Balam are holding on desperately, but for the moment they’re hunkered down.
The RLF has control over Belius. All meaningful PCA forces have been routed from the continent. The Independents have been...
2025-06-02 12:41:06 +0000 UTC View Post10.8
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Going back and forth took a decent bit of time, but I eventually got it all worked out. When I had, the only thing that remained was the briefing.
“I’m sure it doesn’t come as any surprise to you by now, but there are, in fact, even more secret groups operating to their own ends on this planet.” I began. “Meet Branch, a group ...
10.7
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I didn’t bother to stick around for what would come next. I just gave them their privacy and left them to it.
Perhaps this was foolish. This entire group had come here with the ultimate plan of setting the Coral alight again, after all. Leaving them to do their thing was, by most definitions, not exactly a good idea.
Honestly, though? It didn...
2025-05-27 13:17:37 +0000 UTC View Post10.i-2
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“Alright.” Carla spoke. “Let’s lay it all down. Chatty, do me a favour and keep track, would you?”
“Yes, Chief.”
“Thanks. Okay, let’s start with the most important: Coral is apparently intelligent and nobody noticed.” Carla stated. “Do we perhaps have any problems with the evidence...
2025-05-23 13:24:36 +0000 UTC View Post10.i
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The mission had been like any other. Arquebus wanted a PCA base destroyed and their resources reduced. All he had to do was release the Hound to do the job, and 621 would handle the rest. He himself only provided remote support at best, and it was wholly unnecessary in the face of 621’s absurd skill.
Walter recognized from the start that Arquebus wa...
2025-05-21 14:08:55 +0000 UTC View Post10.6
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Carla didn’t answer immediately. I was perfectly fine with that, to be honest. It gave me the opportunity to just keep going, and that was great, because there were some things that really wanted to complain about.
“I didn’t really understand the whole thing before then, you know?” ...
2025-05-19 13:08:52 +0000 UTC View Post10.5
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“Alright then.” I spoke. “Let’s talk.”
Carla and Walter were present, of course. Also present was RaD, which meant the full gamut of RRI survivors.
Chatty, as well.
I could detect an additional link, though. Not from this side of things, but from the other end. 621 was patched in through Walter’s link...
2025-05-15 13:10:51 +0000 UTC View Post10.4
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There was one, very brief, moment of silence. A single instant where everyone on the opposite side of the battlefield was afforded the chance to realize precisely how fucked they were.
Ten seconds ago, it had been Raven, the eternally dangerous and infinitely infuriating threat, alone against an army. Ten seconds ago, the largest C-Weapon tha...
2025-05-13 12:59:57 +0000 UTC View Post10.3
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I was beginning to run into a problem that I hadn’t been expecting to have. A strange situation, where all of sudden, something that had been true for three decades simply wasn’t anymore.
The whole thing with Balam and Arquebus had increased the pace that we were all moving at, but it ultimately hadn’t changed things, in the end. For five years,...
2025-05-09 13:22:36 +0000 UTC View Post10.2
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The battle that followed was quick, violent, and utterly lethal. Six ACs versus the entire PCA army, and the former went through the latter like a hot knife through butter.
It was a chaotic clusterfuck. The PCA’s army had not been prepared to lose the Warship, and it showed. Cohesion had been lost, and the army had broken up into numerous different ...
2025-05-07 13:16:45 +0000 UTC View Post10.1
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It was just one ship, for the moment. It posed no threat to 621, and soon enough there was a Warship’s wreck decorating the surface of the Ice Field.
That, however, was just beginning.
Five years ago, the PCA had pulled out of Belius. In doing so, they had left the megacorporations to have free reign so long as they didn’t try to leave 2025-05-05 11:58:00 +0000 UTC View Post
10.0
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When I was done teasing Ayre for the day, I went back to work. I had a bunch of shit I suddenly needed to do, and with how rapidly things were accelerating, it was better to stay on top of things.
Dolmayan’s gift was nearly ready. The final stages of assembly had been completed, all checks had passed, and now the only thing that was left was the pai...
2025-05-01 14:01:43 +0000 UTC View Post9.8
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The spontaneous detonation of the Howling Head Bay Area was both entirely expected and completely planned for. My sensors had been watching for it, keyed to alert me the moment it happened.
I was, for the most part, done with Dolmayan’s gift by then. Everything that required my actual direct attention was done, at the very least, and the rest of it c...
2025-04-29 13:17:11 +0000 UTC View Post9.i
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It was a very rare occasion where her mother asked anything of her.
It was a very rare occasion where her mother asked anything of any of her siblings, if Ayre were to be more accurate.
Her mother was... not a stifling presence in the lives of Ayre or her siblings. That was not to say that her mother was distant, or somehow not prese...
2025-04-25 12:11:15 +0000 UTC View Post9.7
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Things were quiet in Belius.
It was... unusual. For the past five-ish years, the conflicts had been endless. Unrelenting. The Megacorporations were always either planning something or doing something, usually both at the same time. The pace of their operations had been relentless...
Until now.
A major operation made by the both of them, wit...
2025-04-23 12:37:31 +0000 UTC View Post9.6
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Freud was currently on fire, missing an arm, and heavily damaged on top of all of that. Until he was dead, this was not a meaningful reduction of his threat level.
Nile was in the process of being torn apart by Rusty. Unfortunately for him, there really wasn’t anything he could do to remedy this situation, because Rusty was both the better pilot and ...
2025-04-21 12:49:53 +0000 UTC View Post9.5
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Freud shot forwards, LOCKSMITH shifting into pure aggression. Dolmayan met his joyous assault with undaunted determination, ASTGHIK clashing with the other AC with grand fury.
Neither had been messing around before, but now both of them had acquired the measure of their opponents. The battle had moved, then, into something that was all imminent lethali...
2025-04-17 11:44:30 +0000 UTC View Post9.4
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“Hear me, scavengers!” Dolmayan called over the comms, broadcasting out in the open. “You’ll find nothing you seek here! Forged in ash, we stand as one!”
This... was going to be complicated.
Mmm. I made a mistake, here. I really should have had a bit more forces in the area just in case. The only things I can spare rig...
2025-04-15 12:22:42 +0000 UTC View Post9.3
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Hopefully soon, I said.
Evidently not just yet, though.
The aftermath of the assault on the Gallia Dam Complex was, not to put too fine a point on it, an absolute shitshow for Balam. Arquebus as well, but only to a lesser extent.
The megacorps were three for three on failed major assaults against the RLF. They could not break the sensor net...
2025-04-11 10:36:16 +0000 UTC View Post9.2
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“I see what you meant about this mercenary.” Flatwell said, leaning forwards with his chin resting on a hand. “This is...”
He paused for a moment, searching for the right words.
“This is insane.” Flatwell said. “How the hell did somebody this good get put on ice?”
“Good question.” I spoke. ...
2025-04-09 11:42:44 +0000 UTC View Post