Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

Chapter 4: Operation: Wallclimber

"You must be the handler, I presume?" said a new voice, "For the independent mercenary Raven."

If there ever was a voice that lived up to the name, this would be it, Walter thought.

V.II Snail even managed to sound oily. On paper he was deputy commander of the Vespers, Arquebus' augmented human squad. In actuality, the first Vesper didn't give a damn about his official responsibilities, so V.II effectively ran the squad. With the current situation on Rubicon, he was likely the most powerful Arquebus employee on planet and had an ego to match.

Walter had dealt with people like that before, and he knew how to swallow his pride to get what he wanted done.

"Honored to make your acquaintance, V.II Snail." he replied.

"I understand you want to join Operation Wallclimber? You do realize that disposing of some Liberation Front garbage hardly qualifies you." said the Vesper, "Know your place, you meager dog sitter. The answer is no."

If that's how he wanted to play it, Walter could play that game too. "I hear you're deploying V.I again. Must be rough only having one good pilot to rely on." 

"Oh? Are you suggesting your dog can take Freud's place?" Snail suddenly seemed interested.

It's not every day someone had the gall to compare a no-name mercenary to the Vespers' ace pilot.

"You'll see. Just give us the chance." said Walter.

"... Very well then. We're also deploying V.IV... who's been equally brazen of late." said V.II Snail, "Let's see how they both perform."

Snail cut the link as soon as he finished, leaving Walter sitting in silence. Arquebus had a reputation for using independent mercs as fodder, so they'd have to watch their backs on this one.

...

The encoded message sitting on his desk was another problem he didn't have an answer to. The garrison at the Wall had recently fended off an attack by Balam's Redgun squadron and killed G4 Volta in the process, but not without suffering losses to the MT garrison that were still being replaced, though fortunately they'd not lost any of their ACs.

The Wolf's latest communication had noted that Arquebus would take their own crack at it soon, and some of the numbered Vespers would be deploying for the operation, possibly even V.I.

Despite the aid the Rubiconian corporations were providing to the Liberation Front, the off-planet corps were slowly but surely grinding the Rubiconians to dust under their boot. Combined with the planetary closure system of the PCA that was blocking shipments from off-world, requests for food and supplies had been steadily growing from various bases with no way to meet all of the demand.

Flatwell could feel a headache coming on as he considered a way to minimize the losses they'd suffer if Arquebus did take the Wall. Perhaps he could rotate Ziyi and her squadron away from the base for a few days. They were almost due for another supply run, he could have her escort that with little issue.

...

Rumbling from the transport helicopter's main engines starting up had alerted 621 that it would soon need to be ready, and the order from Walter arrived as it was pulling on the skintight flight suit.

It covered everything below the upper neck in a titanium mesh armor layer over a gel-filled underlayer that provided impact absorption and an interface system for the Armored Core. Some pilots preferred to wear other clothing over it, for fashion or otherwise. 621 was not one of those pilots.