Armored Core 6: Cold Ghost

10. BUSINESS COST

"From 'V.X' to 'V.III'? That's quite a leap. Still has a lot of people in line ahead of him."

"Not if we all die in this stupid expedition, 'V.V'. This is a waste."

The report reached the end and Kouda felt her body twitch as if waking up suddenly to the world. She had been so engrossed in the Coral survey on Rubicon, with the last of the reports confirming the dead ends, leaving only the very few potential veins. All of them, unfortunately, either under the PCA's control, or the RLF's. Ideally the Planetary Closure Administration is the one to avoid out of the many obstacles on Rubicon, but Kouda couldn't help but think the PCA is oddly very protective and secretive about its operations on the ground. Not to mention that is was the PCA who declared the planet uninhabitable and inaccessible to all after conducting their own investigation after the Fires of Ibis incident. Yet the PCA's hold and forces planet side was secretly growing, which would've gone unnoticed had the leak about resurgence in Coral not reached the ears of the Corporations. The PCA had reluctantly allowed them to conduct their own surveys to allow each to determine whether or not there was Coral reservoirs that justified sending expeditions for.

For the most part, the surveys turned up negative or too little to be a viable investment for any of the Corporations to move in. But Kouda had been unconvinced of those reports, especially when certain surveys simply vanish around certain areas without any obvious signs or word how. The PCA's investigations would tag them as either hazardous areas or high levels of radiation that affect both machinery and personnel, which conveniently enough is true with regards to Coral. The substance was used in both power production and technological research, and was highly volatile making any mishandling of the resource extremely costly.

Which was why 'V.X' would be the best way to go about her research. While Arquebus and Schneider take the time to evaluate and integrate him into the Vesper ranks, she would take her time to pinpoint areas of interest, sending him on classified recon missions from time to time till they got used to the whole arrangement before sending him on more... critical missions. Snail and O'Keefe had initially objected to the recon mission earlier which nearly got one of their survey members killed along with 'V.X' who had just landed a few days before. Luckily, they both came out of it alive and had given them potential locations of Coral reservoirs that were hidden by some rabble there weren't part of the RFL. While the report of them having a functioning AC was somewhat worrisome, the Coral reserve they were holding onto wasn't worth sending in a force in to take over the facility. Not to mention that 'V.X' had severely damage the AC that unless they had the resources or were connected to BAWS industries in any way, the AC wouldn't be used again after that skirmish.

Snail's analysis of the BAWS AC indicated that the pilot was barely able to utilize the AC's full capabilities, and its movement being sluggish and pitifully inadequate comparable to MTs. Thus, concluding that the pilot wasn't really an AC pilot but someone who had been forced into it by circumstance and desperation.

She didn't understand what all his analysis proved or how it would affect operations going forward but it at least reassured her that 'V.X's mishap of nearly being taken out by some random untrained pilot was just a fluke. Kouda had a lot of hopes and plans riding on this pilot for her to lose him so soon in the campaign. Speaking of which, it was about time she checked in on him personally. It had been a busy period since her first interactions with Snail about getting him augmented after that recon mission. She had been irritated that against her wishes, Snail had decided to have him undergo Gen 4 augmentation when newer and safer operations were available. He'd rationalized it as preserving the limited Coral reserves they had to work with and that it was the most stable augmentation procedure until further tests were done on the newer procedures. A flashback came to her during her time at the AllMind facility, when the Director there was explaining how all the candidates were secretly being introduce to Coral weekly and their reaction to the substance being recorded over the 10-week program. That, as the Director said, would immensely help with the augmentation procedures when the body is receptive to Coral instead of suddenly introducing it to individuals during the operation.