Armored Core for Answer : Project X

by TheKon2000

Chapters

Chapter 1: Project X
Chapter 2: Moon-Dust
Chapter 3: X Squared
Chapter 4: Mission Finish.
Chapter 5: Star-Dust
Chapter 6: Rayleonards Curse

Chapter 1: Project X

"How are the tests going Mills?" asked the head researcher, a tall, dark skinned man with no hair and a lab coat adorning his somewhat broad frame.

"Optimally, sir. Project X seems to be progressing in the augmentation nicely. They're all taking." replied a short and chubby lighter skinned man with messy black hair, a lab coat also resting upon him. "The increase thought process chip and the microprocessor to enhance focus and thinking skills are already implanted, now all that remains are the neural link ports, the AND (Automated Nanobot Defense) , and the CRN (Cell Regeneration Nanobots)." The mention of these two chips reminded the lesser scientist of there purpose.

-Flashback-

"The combination of these to chips will make our guy nearly unkillable, the nanobots reinforcing his skin to be almost unbreakable in most places, and the other able to regenerate any cell, and even brain cells to an extent, after injury."

-Realtime-

The only problem was some more sensitive organs couldn't be reinforced or regenerated, due to the level of technology available. The other problem was that he could still be one shot, if they got the drop on him. But other than that, the nanobots would grant him enough strength to lift NEXTS (Giant ten meter tall mechs) and even live through being shot with a Sapla (Mini grenade launcher weilded by NEXTS) head on.

"Implantation complete, X is now done with the augmentation phase." the synthetic voice of the cradle's AI spoke through a speaker in the ceiling.

"Thank you Sierra, you are relieved for now." the taller man said.

"As you wish captain." the synthetic voice resonated again.

-2 weeks later-

"And this is your NEXT, it's equipped with an assault rifle, an energy blade, missiles, a dual laser cannon, and a pulse shotgun." the tall man said as he indicated to a medium weight NEXT to his left, the build mainly comprised of Rosenthal parts. This was due to Project X being of Rosenthal Origins, and thus funded and built by them. The NEXT was black with red highlights running along it's frame. It had a mark on it's left shoulder of a red gravestone, with a black arrow pointing down and 2 black swords crossing behind the arrow but in front of the gravestone. It's weapons were colored black and a variety of other colors. The assault rifle was colored gold, the blade dark green, the laser dark blue, the missiles a light grey, and the shotgun was red like the outside hull, and blended in nicely with the thigh. The room the two stood in was a large hanger, around 80 feet high and 200 yards in either direction from a corner. The NEXT was of to the left in the middle, and the room was a buzz with activity.

"Cool." X said as he stared wide eyed at the hulking machine, wires hanging off at odd angles and scientists and engineers running scans to make sure everything was in working order. He looked to the tall man next to him and asked "When do I get to take her for a spin?"

"After you've gone through some training, but for now, how about you name her. PRS-1D146 isn't a very suiting name if you ask me." the tall man said, chuckling a little at the young man's enthusiasm.

"How about, Gravestone?" the X replied.

"A predictable name." the taller man says. "But then again, it's still better than the stock name, that's for certain."

"Well at least it fits." X chuckled a little, followed by the taller man beside him.

-In equestria-

"A strange anomaly indeed sister." said a dark shaded equine as she and her counterpart stared at the black rift in the ocean before them.

"It's seems another world is dying." the lighter one said. "It'll be the first one in thousands of years."

"How will they react?" the dark one again spoke, not averting her eyes from the raging rift in the middle of the gently flowing tide. Two complete opposites, one twisting and snapping as if in agony and the other slowly moving without a care in the world.

The other laughed. "Poorly, I'm sure."

-4 weeks later. Earth.-

The dark skinned man was standing in a room next to a strange device. The device was some kind of chair, with wires and other devices placed around it. X was currently seated in the chair, adorned in a combat suit and a practice helmet. The helmet was a kind of virtual reality, and was used in this case to train pilots and Linx.

"Perfect simulation. Congratulations X" Sierra said to X after his perfect test run against 5 NEXTs at once. The feat was noting to brush off, the simulation was incredibly difficult to do while taking hits, and event the best lost most of there AP (Armor Points). To lose none was incredible, however the novelty had worn off the 4th time he'd done it. X got up out of his chair, and removed his helmet, revealing a robotic left eye. The eye had been lost when his optic nerve was severed by a piece of debris during an accident.

"Good work X, I think we're done here." the dark skinned man said to X. In the short time he'd been here, X and he were already close friends.

"Okay Caleb, let me don some comfier clothing and we'll go." X said as he started to change out of his suit. X was now in a black tee-shirt and black shorts that came down shortly passed his knee. "Okay, where do you want to go?"

"Let's go get a drink, it's been too long." Caleb said to his friend as he unlocked the door and walked out X following behind.

"Sweet man. It's a great night for a beer or two, maybe mingle with some of the residents, talk to some ladies." X said as he wiggled his eyebrows.

"Shut up." Caleb said as he smacked X upside the head.

"Ow, okay okay. You want to talk to some of the guys oka- OW" X said as Caleb smacked him again.

"Dammit X." Caleb said as they resumed their walk to the bar.

"Haha, you're so easy to mess with."

"Oh shut it you overgrown monkey." Caleb said as they walked into the bar.

Author's Note

Images for Armored Core : Project X

http://s112.photobucket.com/user/thekon2000/library/?sort=3&page=1

Chapter 2: Moon-Dust

X sat in the booth of a bar, Caleb sitting across from him. "So they're finally cutting the chain loose and letting me go on a mission?" X said as he sipped from his drink.

"Mmhmm." Caleb said as he finished off his bottle. "They're sending you with some guy called Chaos, obviously some alias. Didn't give his real name. All we know is his track record, and so far he's only failed 2 missions. He's a mercenary, and his craft is called Moon-Dust." Caleb handed X a tablet, with a three dimensional image of a NEXT. The next was medium/light weight AC with a gatling gun in his right hand, an SMG in the other, a dual laser cannon on his right back shoulder, spread missiles on his left back shoulder, and spread missiles on his shoulders. It's Ekahzar core combined with it's Soluh head gave it a hunchback appearance.

"This guy looks like he could do some damage, so what's the mission?" asked X taking another sip from his drink.

"You guys are supposed to take down two arms forts. One is a smaller version of Mother Will and the other is a GA land crab. There may or may not be NEXTs there, so expect the worst." Caleb said. "Well it's getting pretty late, we better retire for the night, get some rest. Big day tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you man." X said as he waved at Caleb, the two walking their separate ways to their rooms. As soon as X's head hit the pillow he was out cold.

-The following morning-

"Okay X, all systems seem to be functional, please check the arms to make sure they work." said the tech who was feeding instructions to X. X raised and tensed his right arms, making a fist. The next followed his movements to a T. He did the same with his left. "Okay, good. Jim, are those back weapons ready?" the tech yelled to the man working a crane.

"Yeah!" said Jim.

"Can you activate them for me X?" asked the tech guy.

"Sure thing Denis." X said as he activated his missiles and dual laser cannon. "They work." he said as he powered them down and they returned to their original position.

"Okay, your clear, your handhelds are over there." Denis said as he pointed a thumb at two weapons, the assault rifle propped up against a crate and the blade on top of said crate.

"Thanks man." X said as his craft was disengages from the wall it was attached to and stepped off the pedestal. He walked over to his weapons and retrieved them. The hanger doors opened and a cargo bob flew in, carrying another next. X walked over to the NEXT and recognized it as Moon-Dust. X formed a comm link to the craft. "So you're Chaos huh?"

"Yeah, I guess you're X. Great to finally see you in person, or NEXT as it were." a deep voice said as it laughed through the speakers and echoed in the hollow compartment of the cockpit.

"NEXTs Moon-Dust and Gravestone please move your way to the drop areas, you will drop in 5 minutes. Good luck." Caleb's voice said through the hangers speakers.

"That's us." X said as Chaos disengaged from his helicopter and dropped 10 feet to the ground. The two made their way to the drop areas, little cubic spaces in the wall of the hanger that NEXTs were deployed from. Their NEXTs were picked up off the ground by the clamps in the ceiling and were suspended in place above the door. X's heads up display read '30 seconds to drop'.

"Are you ready?" asked Caleb's voice, he would be their operator for this mission.

"Yep/Uh-huh." X and Chaos said in unison. The countdown read 20 seconds.

"X this is your first mission, right?" Chaos asked.

"Yes, it is. Why?" X asked.

"Just try not to throw up on the way down, it really gets irritating when your in the middle of a mission and you have chunks in your helmet."

"Okay. Thanks for that image." X said. The timer read 3 seconds. 2, the doors underneath them opened. 1, the clamps let loose and the NEXTs fall out. "Oh shit!" X screamed as his craft was rocketed out of the Cradle. His shields activated once he was a safe distance from the cradle and wouldn't affect anyone with the Kojima poisoning. He looked down and saw his target. And around 8 other NEXTs. They were all specs of black against the yellow of the dessert. The desert that covered the entire planet, save for the poles and oceans. They zoomed in on the NEXTs using their visors.

"Oh shit." said Chaos

"What?" X asked.

"You see those NEXTs? They're part of an extremely sexist, all female mercenary group called the XX battalion." Chaos said with a groan.

"That's a thing?" X asked skeptically.

"Unfortunately. They aren't a laughing matter either, lost my last partner to them and barely got away myself. Some of them are top ranking collard members. Looks like GA hired them to guard these arms forts, but why?" Chaos asked.

"No idea, but you two should be able to take them." Caleb said.

"Is there a male version of them?"

"Yeah, slightly smaller at around 43, called the Vortex group. This ones 48-50 strong though. Both of them are strange." Chaos said.

X whistled. "Pretty big groups."

"5th and 4th largest, respectively." Chaos said.

"30 seconds to impact, get ready." the 2 braced and started to burn their thrusters at a slow burn. The seconds trickled by and the two increased power to their thrusters. "3 seconds." he said again right before impact. The two increased their burns to max and hit the ground with a thud.

"Here we go!" X said as the enemy NEXTs quickly split into 4 separate groups and approached the duo from different sides. "This is gonna be fun!"

Author's Note

http://armoredcore.wikia.com/wiki/Arms_Fort descriptions of the arms forts.

No idea why their are two really sexist mercenary groups, I just decided there could be and said, "Sure, why the fuck not.". So here it is, the oh so not anticipated second chapter to this story, and already after 2 chapters 2/5 the size of my biggest story. This one is gonna be a big one, hopefully.

Chapter 3: X Squared

The green NEXT stops in-front of X and Chaos, causing the others to do the same, encircling the 2. "Chaos, so glad to see you after our last bout. A shame Ying couldn't be here too. But, alas, you were too weak to save him." said the smooth tone of the trained killer on the other side of the mic. The words flowed off of her tongue with a slight Spanish accent. 7 voices laughed over the mic. The black and white stripped NEXT pilot didn't laugh.

"Thorn-Crown, what are you doing here?" Chaos said with venom filling his voice to the point where X's spine tingled.

"Oh oh oh, down boy. We're just here to do a little work, test out some weapons, finish what we started." Thorn said coolly.

"X, be careful, don't let them get a hit on you." Chaos said on a private channel. He switched back over,"You wanna fight? Let's fight."

X took this moment to measure up his enemies. 4 all had the same emblem, a creepy white smiley face. The other four had custom ones. Thorn-Crown had 2 different types of assault rifles in her hands, a vertical fire kojima missile on her back right shoulder, a laser cannon on her back left shoulder, and a small laser blade on her hip. The yellow and pink one had dual assault rifles of different make in both of her hands as well although not the same 2, 2 of the same small laser blades on her hips, and her back and shoulders were occupied by PA (primal armor(energy shields)) strengtheners. The white and orange NEXT had a rifle in her right hand, a Moonlight laser sword (most powerful and deadly one in armored core) in her left hand, a HI-Laser cannon on her back right shoulder, a small plasma rifle on her hip, and ECM (radar blockers) makers on her shoulders. Rounding off the 4 customs is a black and white striped NEXT with an assault rifle in her right hand and the same Moonlight laser blade on her left hand. According to the info Caleb had fed him while Thorn and Chaos were talking, The NEXTs were Bleeding Iris, Crescent Blade, and Corrosion respectively.

The other four unnamed craft was the next item of attention. (1) The blue and purple Type-Judith carried a shotgun in her right hand, a long bladed laser sword in her left hand, a radar on her back right shoulder, scatter missiles on her back left shoulder, and a laser shotgun on her right hip, of the same make as X's. (2) The next was a light orange and pink, reverse jointed NEXT, with laser weapon arms, a radar on her back right shoulder, and a HI-Laser cannon on her left back shoulder. (3) The gold and blue one has a configuration of weapons similar to Iris's, except for the matching machine guns instead of assault rifles, it also has a lighter head, arms, and legs and a heavy weight torso, making it look like a tortoise. (4) The last was also blue and gold, though the proportions switched, she had a GA rifle in her right hand, an extremely heavy weight grenade launcher in her left hand, and a small laser blade on her left hip.

By the time X finished these mental notes, the machines hadn't even moved an inch, and he thanked his implants for that. X dashed forward and activated his blade, slicing at one of the pairing. Iris and 3 had been paired together, and were now his target. Iris dashed away, but the pilot in the unnamed craft was not so lucky. It took a direct hit, lowering it's PA to nothing. X activated his NEXT's AA (assault armor(makes your shields explode, causing massive damage and lowering others shields with a constant drain for a few seconds)) and completely obliterated 3 before a single shot was fired. Chaos raised his Gatling gun and fired at Thorn Crown and 4, causing them to spread out to avoid damage, however the fire from Corrosion caused him to dodge and avoid the oncoming fire. Meanwhile X was battling Iris, Blade, 1, and 2, who had come to help, and fired his rifle at 1 while dodges fire from 2 and Blade, and firing lasers at Iris. The Enhancements had paid off, he was nearly untouchable, Chaos however, was not so lucky. He had taken around one third of the total damage capacity his craft could take. He boosted forward, grabed 4, and fired his machine guns last clip directly into her chest before taking out his blade and cutting the dazed NEXT down, then boosting back as Corrosion boosted forward and swung her sword. Chaos fired a laser blast at her, and she absorbed it using her sword to block. Chaos staggered as he was hit with a laser shot from his right and Corrosion boosted forward and slashed at Chaos. Chaos just managed to quick turn and boost out of the way, however his Gatling gun was not so lucky.

2 had just run out of ammo and was charging up her over-boost to try and impale him on her arms. "Just lay down and di..." 2 started before X quick boosted forward while she was distracted and cut her clean through the middle with his blade. Her over-boost activated and sent the two part colliding into 1, who was destroyed by the same method as 3 while she was staggered. Blade was caught in the blast and was grazed by a shot from X who had fired his laser at her. Her blade was completely melted, and so was the tip of her laser cannon. The girls were running out of ammo, but X still had plenty. Blade retreated, and was soon followed by Iris. "This isn't the last you've seen of us, boy." X turned to see Chaos in a losing battle. His armaments, excluding his blade and missile, were gone, and Corrosion was pressing him hard. X charged his over boost, and just as Corrosion was about to make a final swing, he rocketed forward, smashing into her at nearly mach two, and tossed her into the wall of a ruined building before smashing her through the entire building and stopping on the other side and watching her go flying.. Her right arm was completely torn of, and her left arms elbow joint was smashed, leaving it at and odd angle. The rest of her chassis was leaking kojima, and couldn't form her PA due to it's crumpled state. The Next managed to stand back up, and then Thorn landed in front of it.

"This isn't over, NEXT. We'll meet again, and when we do, you'll be going down." Thorn said. The two jetted off, Thorn supporting Corrosion.

"Wow, I didn't think we'd win that." Chaos said, pulling his hammered NEXT up next to X's pristine one. Chaos turned his NEXT's head away from their fleeing enemies, and looked at X. "Holy, they didn't even hit you, did they?" Chaos asked with surprise evident in his voice.

"Once, with the blast of some scatter missiles. Didn't do more than a hundred AP (armor points(Health))." X said turning towards his beaten down partner.

"Well hell, never gonna piss you off. Barely managed three of them." He said. "So, should we finish the mission?"

"Yeah, probably should." X said with a sigh. He turned towards the Arms Forts, and started to glide his craft over the sand as Chaos fell in next to him.

Author's Note

Pics will be coming shortly. It's late and there are other things I need to do.

Chapter 4: Mission Finish.

"X." Caleb said over the comms.

"Yeah, what is it?" X asked.

"I'm picking up three Mass NEXTs (Mass produced NEXTs, often called M-NEXTs, that are of inferior quality to the custom NEXTs, possessing low-end NEXT weaponry and very weak PA, as well as drastically reduced AP and durability. The most common manufacturers of these are GA (Global Armaments), Omer, and BFF (Bernard & Felix Foundation). Interior is the last one with any real amount to them, but still palling in comparison.)"

"What model?" Chaos asked him.

"2 GA main and a GA side." GA mains were heavyweights outfitted with twin GA rifles, GA missiles on it's right back shoulder, a GA radar on it's left back, relation missiles (Missiles that fire with back mounted missiles) on it's shoulders, and twin automatic GA revolvers on it's hips. GA sides, like most sides, were slightly more varied and were better made. These mid-weights consisted of a High-end NEXT GA rifle, a regular GA Gatling gun and low end PM (Highly maneuverable, low damage missiles) missiles provided by Omer on it's back and the same low-end pistols on it's hips. AP and durability are still low, but PA is only slightly below that of a custom NEXTs average.

"Not much to note then?" X said as he chuckled.

"No, not really. Just remember, one hit from those Arms Forts and your gonna be hard pressed to get back up, even more so to still be in fighting condition." Caleb cautioned them.

"Chaos, you think your still battle ready?"

"Everything's functioning, and I still have 15,000 AP out of 40,000, so I can still tango with these bastards." Chaos said while looking over the schematic of his NEXT, parts were mainly green and yellow, while some weapons were black, no red (Green-Minimal damage, Yellow-Slightly/Significantly damaged, Red-Catastrophic damage, Black-Completely broken or detached.).

"Great. Look, we're 2 minutes out, here comes the cavalry." X said, using his robotic eye's magnification to zoom in on the approaching M-NEXTs.

"You go on ahead, I can take these guys." Chaos said.

"Okay, good-luck." X said as he took off from the ground gained altitude and charged his over-boost before activating it and rocketing away.

"Okay then, let's rock." Chaos said as he fed more power to his boosters. He was now within their range, and bullets started to fly past him as he did small boosts to dodge. He powered up his blade as they got close, closing the gap quickly and taking a slice at the two mains. The lower quality of the M-NEXTs made the blade slice through like a hot knife through butter, and the two M-NEXTs didn't stand a chance. The first one was sliced clean through the chest, killing the pilot. The second was sliced through arm, part of the radar, and part of the head, melting some of the internal parts of the M-NEXT and rendering the left side completely open. Chaos boosted back as the side started pelting him with Gatling bullets, and then boosted around the low tier NEXT and sliced it through the back and chest, causing the NEXT to tumble to the ground. He then turned his attention to the last M-NEXT and locked on with his missiles, firing them and completely obliterating the NEXT.

"Heh, looks like you just couldn't reach the NEXT level." he said as the explosion from the falling Mother Will landed right behind him.

"Dude, I can't believe you just said that." Caleb said with a no small amount of judgement in his voice.

"For shame, Chaos, for shame." said X, shaking his NEXTs head while he stood atop the burning arms fort.

"Fuck you guys, that was funny." Chaos said, laughing afterwards, followed by the other two.

"Okay guys, the chopper is inbound to pick you up, please prepare to deactivate your shielding." Caleb said.

"Okay then. Well, we got ten minutes to kill. What should we do?" X asked.

"Well how about we play catch with one of the mains' heads while you tell me how in the hell you pulled that off?"

"Sure." X said as they started in that direction.

----One minutes prior----

"Here we go." X said under his breath as he targeted the land crab. Both mother will and the land crab shot at him as he made his approach, but neither managed a successful hit on him. As he neared the land crab he activated his laser and shot the leg. The laser hit home and nailed is at a joint, causing it to melt together and become useless. He then powered down his laser and and powered up his blade. He flew underneath it and cut along the weak bottom, causing mass amounts of damage and causing the land crab to halt. "One down." X changed his course to the mother will, super charging his blade with kojima and making it bigger than he was and crackling energy, turning it a deep emerald green from the once sky blue blade. The same effect happened with his shield. Then, he over-boosted once more, directly at mother will. "One, to, GO!" he shouted as he slice and rammed the smaller mother will through and through, causing catastrophic damage to it. He powered down his blade and slowly descended onto the corpse of the mechanical beast.

----Present time----

"You can do that!" Chaos asked, surprised that X could do that with his blade and shield.

"The shields only lasts for a short while and constantly drains them as well. It makes me invulnerable while I'm doing it though. My sword is much the same, although a lot less of a drain. Combined it lasts about 10 seconds. Shields last around 20 on their own and sword is about a minute depending on how many times I get shot while I'm doing it." X says as they toss the head back and forth. "Well our ride is here." Both of them looked towards the two approaching helicopters.

"Yeah. Lets go." he said boosting over and disabling his shields, X doing the same.

"If you ever need any help again, you know who to call." Chaos said as he transferred his comm node (Kinda like a phone number) to X and X did the same.

"Thanks." X said to his first ally.

"See you around." Chaos said as the choppers took off in opposite directions.

Author's Note

I promise the pictures will be up before another major NEXT battle.

Chapter 5: Star-Dust

"Buzz-buzz." the headpiece on the nightstand vibrated. X woke up, groaning, and grabbed the headpiece.

"Who is this, what do you want, it's 2 in the morning." X said tot he person over the comm link.

"X it's me. I've got a job for you. You up for it?" Chaos said over the other end, sounding jumpy.

"When?" X asked, still not awake as Caleb snored lightly above him on the top bunk.

"No later than 5, we need to move quick. So?" Chaos asked, almost pleaded.

"Sure, let me get Caleb up." X said. He got up and stretched before cupping his hands over his mouth and yelling "GET YOUR ASS UP, WE'VE GOT A JOB." Caleb fell out of the bed, and landed with a thud on the floor as he flailed about. Coming to his senses, he rubbed the back of his head and winced.

"Dammit X, you could have hurt me." Caleb complained.

"To bad. We got a job from Chaos, don't know what for, seemed jumpy. Gotta go by 5 though. He's on his way here." X explained.

"Okay, let's get going." Caleb said with a sigh. The two went on waking essential personnel and getting ready.

20 minutes later. "Okay, so you've found proof that the XX have your partner, and you want our help to go get him?" X asked.

"In a nutshell." Chaos said.

"I must be fucking crazy to do this, but let's go." X said, sighing.

2 1/2 hours later and the two are suited up and awaiting drop. The target destination was approaching. The target was the XX Battalion's main headquarters, heavily outfitted with large walls and battalions upon battalions of normals and mt guards, and even some M-NEXTs. Leading it all was Crescent Blade, near the center, giving out orders. That's where the data ended, no specific numbers or how many back-up NEXTs might be there, or even the model of M-NEXTs.

"Well, that's just a wealth of information isn't it?" X said sarcastically, as he read through the data.

"30 seconds to drop guys." Caleb said.

"Well, let's hope they won't have enough time to properly react. This is their main base, of course it's going to have back-up NEXTs." Chaos said.

"Well, let's hope we don't have to pull out the big guns." X said as the counter in his hud steadily depleted.

"5 seconds guys." Caleb said. 3 seconds, the door begins to open. 2 seconds, the doors are completely opened. 1 second, the clamps release. The two machines plummet through the air, the ground quickly becoming a lot bigger. The forms of the machines, only recognizable as dots at this altitude, move about the base. A group of the dots form up and move towards our landing zone. Scans from the NEXTs show that their are 300 MTs, 100 Normals, 50 M-NEXTs and 5 NEXTs.

"Quite the welcoming party. You split off and look for Ying. I'll take care of these guys." X said as he primed his thrusters with minimal power.

"You sure?" Chaos asked.

"Yeah man, land over there, there's another clearing closer to the base." X said as he highlighted the area with a way-point.

"Okay man." Chaos said, reorienting his NEXT.

"Okay, let's rock." X said to himself in a barely audible tone. He fed more power to the boosters, further slowing him down. As the ground raced up to meet him, he progressively fed more power to his thrusters until feeding full power to them just before hitting the ground, landing with a thud. Raising his head, his hud displayed the forces approaching. Leading the charge was Crescent Blade, with Corrosion, Bleeding Iris, and two more unknown NEXTs at her side. Behind them, 50 Interior M-NEXTs followed. They were all interior main, armed with a average grade dual fire hi-laser rifle in it's right, a low grade broad energy sword in it's left hand, low grade AS (auto sight) missiles on it's right back shoulder, a high grade powerful hi-laser canon on it's back left shoulder, average AS missiles on it's shoulders, and an average grade pulse gun on it's right hip. It had high end PA, but the actual armor itself was very low grade. One blade swipe would end it. The two NEXTs, the names assigned on the hud were Hammer and Positive Charge. They were both mid heavy's, Charge an energy defensive build and Hammer a physical defensive build. Charge was outfitted with with an assault rifle in her right hand, a laser bazooka in her left hand, a chain gun on her back right shoulder, some vertical fire PM missiles on her back left shoulder, a pulse gun on her right hip, and a laser blade on her left hip. She was white and mint green. Hammer had a bazooka in her right hand, a Gatling gun in her left hand, twin hand guns on her hips, and Missile launchers on her shoulders, back left shoulder, and back right shoulder. She was grey and blue.

"So bold to think you could take us by yourself." Crescent said as they came to a halt, the MTs and Normals still a ways away.

"Not bold, efficient. You're not worth more than one persons time." X said. Crescent growled at him and raised her rifle. "Oh, touchy, eh." X said as the enemy next's grip tightened on the trigger. The other NEXT raised their weapons as well. X primed his PA to go into overdrive.

"Fire!" Crescent yelled as every NEXT and M-NEXT unleashed their fire. X activated the primers, and his blade, and dashed forward before swinging and cutting down 10 M-NEXTs and cutting the fore-arm of Iris off. The others boosted back and continued their assault. X dashed back behind a rock, disabling the PA and sword upgrades. He looked at his gauge. His PA was almost depleted. The rock started to glow red, so he dashed out and hid behind another rock, returning fire as he did. The normals and MTs arrived, starting to fire as well. The rock was quickly being reduced to rubble. He dashed to another rock, nailing 4 Normals in the head. His PA was at full strength now. He activated his laser canon and peaked out from behind the rock, firing at a group of 5 normals and 2 M-NEXTs. The result was 4 dead Normals, 1 normal with no legs, and one less M-NEXT. Blade dashed at him, activating her blade and slashed. He dashed back, activating his own, before lunging forward and scoring a direct hit through the torso, using her to soak up bullets. "ARRAGH" Blade screemed as her NEXT went critical (Generator is seriously damaged, but not destroyed. Results in a NEXT blowing up in a massive Kojima and fire ball.). X threw her at the army of MTs, Normals, and M-NEXTs. Her NEXT detonated in a huge ball of flames and Kojima, polluting the surrounding area and decimating most of the army. None of the MTs remained, 3 of the Normals were online, though none had all their parts, 16 M-NEXTs remained, only 7 were suited for combat, only 3 had all of their parts. One of the NEXTs, Hammer, had been destroyed and Iris had lost her broken arm, as well as a chunk of her core. She no longer had PA and she was leaking Kojima. One of the other 2, Charge, was fleeing, and Corrosion was the only one left who was at full functioning capacity.

"So, this is how it ends, to fade away and be forgotten. Hmm, maybe it is for the best. She was a fool to think she could kill you. Rosenthal does put quality over quantity, after all." an unfamiliar voice said over the comms.

"Is this the pilot of corrosion?" X asked.

"This is she." Corrosion said.

"I wish I could say it is nice to meet you. However, I don't think, after all, with who you're fighting for, I can." X said powering up his missiles and locking on.

"Let's end this, X." she said. X launched his missiles as she dashed to the side. 4 of the missiles hit, staggering her. He fired his laser, nailing her in the arm, sending her rifle and arm sailing through the air, impaling a Normal and causing it to explode. X dashed forward and swung his sword, but was staggered by a laser shot from one of the M-NEXTs. He dashed back to avoid her blade. He turned and fired a salvo of missiles and the M-NEXTs, destroying two without PA. He dashed to the left to avoid her blade again. This time when he lunged, he wasn't shot. It slice clean through, killing the NEXT. "Heh, figures. To die before it even began." the NEXT collapsed into the sand. X turned towards the remaining M-NEXTs, activating his blade. The green aura traveled down the blade. He lunged, cutting down the last 7 M-NEXTs. A few well place rifle shots later, and the only things left standing were Iris and X.

"Heh, didn't even get to fight properly. A shame. Oh well." X said as he powered up his laser. She attempted to dash away, but her generator failed to produce enough energy. She fell to the floor, dropping her rifle. He charge up his laser, blasting off her arm.
"I'm not going to tell you twice. Run." X said as his NEXT seemingly glared at her. And run she did. With what little energy her NEXT had, it boosted up and glided along the ground, boosting away.

"X, how in the fuck did you do this." Chaos said. X turned and saw another NEXT standing next to him.

"Good work you two, the base has fallen silent. The drop-ships will be there soon." Caleb said.

"A tale for another time Chaos, is this Ying?" X asked.

"Yeah, we hijacked one of their M-NEXTs for him to use. We'll have to rebuild his."

"Great, well, let's power down our PA and head to the extraction point." the NEXTs all powered down their PA, Kojima particles shimmering in the air as they were released from their prison. 5 minutes later and the NEXTs were strapped into their respective choppers and were on their way home.

Author's Note

So how do you guys like it so far? Is this an improvement over the last 3 stories?

Chapter 6: Rayleonards Curse

X was walking through the cafeteria, on his way out. The morning started much the same as any other. Shower, check for missions, check on his NEXT, eat. However, today, he had been called in by HQ. They needed to talk to him about something, and he intended to get there early. The doors to the meeting room were larger than the standard doors on the cradle, and more reinforced. He presented his real eye to the retina scanner, waiting as it covered his eye and then traced back to it's original position, before granting him access and opening the heavy door.

"Ah, X, early as usual." a man dressed in a deep navy blue suit said. X recognized him as the acting president of Rosenthal. 6 more people were in the room, only two others had he ever seen in person before. One was Gerald Gendlin, pilot of Noblesse Oblige, he wore casual clothing, black jeans and a red T-shirt. Do Su, the pilot of the NEXT starka, he wore baggy black pants, a black vest, and a white under shirt . The other four were dressed in similar business suits. One was an old man with graying hair, the rank of Lieutenant General general signified by the 3 silver stars on his suit. Another, a young woman with black hair, was head of research; he had met her on his last day of augmentation to look him over. The other two were head of NEXT production and head of normal production, and were an middle aged man with red hair and an old man with gray hair respectively, he met the red haired man to talk about his NEXT's capabilities, the other was simply due to the pictures about him on the media. His normals were the best on the market, after all. "We're still waiting on a few more, so take a seat, will you."

"Yes, sir." I said, as I seated myself beside Do Su. He leaned over to me, whispering.

"So your that X guy I've been hearing about."

"Yeah, why?" I asked confused.

"Thought you'd look tougher." he said as he leaned away.

"Dick." I muttered under my breath. The doors open to reveal a tall, bulky man with brown eyes and hair. He was missing his left ear and had a scar over a crooked nose. He took a seat, nodding to the collective. My robotic eye identified him as Izack Pedrion, pilot of the NEXT Shade. Caleb walked in next. Pleasantries were exchanged and he too, took a seat. The remaining seat was filled by a pale white, muscular woman. My eye identified her as Linda Coan, pilot of the NEXT Lag-Shift

"Good, everyone is present. Now, to explain why you're all here." the president said. "As of two days ago, the remnants of a previously unknown Rayleonard production facility have gone active. Due to the rest of the companies being caught-up in conflicts of their own, we get to handle the job this time." he turned to the Linx. "You're here because we think you're right for the job. The details will be sent to your tablets." his attention turned to the others in the room. All at once, the Linx pulled out tablets of varying condition, and turn their attention towards them. They all jump to life as the screens become illuminated. The Linx start poking around and pull up the files. They read:

Money: 500,000 C

Enemies: Normals; Count unknown. Others may be present.

Mission: To disable the facility, in anyway that seems fit.

Details: The facility is mainly underground. It is unknown what was made there, other than experimental normals. Proceed woth caution.

It also had a map of the facility, though very vague. At the bottom it had two buttons, one for accept, and one for decline. I pressed accept. Do Su and the woman turned down the offer, as evident by them walking out of the room. I turned my attention back to the president as he finished talking to the business people and turned to face the remaining Linx. "You 3, go suit up, we'll be dropping you in an hour." We get up and leave heading to the locker room to don the pilot gear. We nod to each other, a silent "I've got your back" as we move towards the locker room. We don our suits, and then make our way to the hanger, where our NEXT's await us. I get a look at the new NEXT. It was made entirely out of Gano-SS type parts. It was equipped with a heavy duty rifle and bazzooka in the right and left hand respectively, missiles on it's left back shoulder, and twin pistols hanging from it's hips. It was all black, with black and red fire as an emblem. 45 minutes to drop, and the hanger was organized chaos. Ammunition was being stored on the NEXT's, weapons were being equipped, and explosives were being put away in the extra storage compartments for the demolition. 30 minutes left and everyone was clear except a few high ranking engineers. They were doing final system checks. 15 minutes and the NEXT's were fully calibrated. 5 minutes and the only noise in the hanger was the hum of the 3 NEXT's generators, and the occasion groan and scrape of metal as the NEXTs fidgeted or checked and re-checked their weapons to pass the time. As I checked my clip for the 5th time, my eyes glanced up at the countdown. 1 minute to go.

I placed the clip back and chambered a cartridge, before glancing at the GA NEXT. It was reloading the clip it had emptied, checking each of the bazooka shots manually. After he loaded the last one in, he shut the built in magazine, before preparing for drop. 15 seconds to go. I felt the clamps secure my NEXT. I looked down to see the floor slowly open, the sound of howling wind reaching my ears. The doors opened halfway, to reveal a bright afternoon, the desert below reflecting much of the light. A small facility came into view, with what looked to be a cargo elevator near the center. The doors finally finished opening, and I looked at the counter. 3 seconds left, 2, 1. The clamps disengaged, and my stomach jumped into my throat. The ground started to accelerate towards me as I picked up speed. The GA NEXT fell into view as it gained more speed then me. 2 km left and I stopped accelerating. 1 km and I felt the pull of my boosters activating. 500 meters left and my boosters were at 25% power, slowing me to half speed. Shade had already landed, and was securing the drop zone. 100 meters left and the roar of my boosters at full power was all I could hear. My NEXT hovered just above the ground as I turned and surveyed the area. Seeing no threat I disengaged them and dropped to the ground with a thud. I scanned the facility to the north, checking it's distance. the readout said 30 km. I heard a thud, and turned my head to watch Noblesse Oblige stand back up from his crouch. He was the first of us to start moving to the target. We fell in behind him, with Shade in the rear. I would have chosen silence, because it would mean the job would be easier. But the slight churning of machinery signaled that this was tp be anything but easy.

Author's Note

Not sure if I will make anymore on fimfiction, but the story is up on fanfiction, and I'm planning more chapters. I've decided against a cross over, but I may make one after the fact. The chapters may show up here, so keep your eyes peeled.