Destiny Drive

Episode 1: Goodbye Sorrow, Today We Embrace Tomorrow!

1995, September 7th, Location Unknown

Staring into a collection of screens displaying the development of new Mechanical Armors (or mecha as everyone else calls them), the twenty year old man those blue eyes belong to sighs. "They just aren't enough, the invasion those datalogs warned us about... It could be our turn at any moment, we need to produce stronger armors." Standing alone in his thoughts, the opening of a door breaks him away from his mind as he turns around. Eyeing a messenger boy, the slightly older male starts stuttering in fear.

Moving towards the newcomer, the young man speaks before the messenger can "The Eldritichians have finally arrived correct?" Not even letting the nervous man reply he continues "Very well, this is the day we all feared. I'll inform my father at once, it wouldn't be best to keep him waiting." With that he walks past the messenger boy, right hand running through his hair.

2005, March 13th, CACHE Avalon Mecha Bay

Looking to his right to see his wife entertaining the Mulier girl, his blue eyes locks with the green of Gerald Long. The decade older man's face an uncompromising scowl, words filled with venom slip from his lips "You expect Faith to synchronize with the unfinished Seelie test chamber? Any number of things could go wrong in its current state, and she's" Cutting off Gerald, the blue eyed man speaks "I'm very sorry about this, but since my father is our leaders' appointed master of such matters his word is law. I understand Faith's importance to the Fae Project, but we can't afford to waste time. It shouldn't be much longer until the true Eldritichian invasion begins."

Sighing to accept his defeat, Gerald looks over to the girl just as she was about to say something "Faith, come over here please. Mister Hawking has something he needs to inform you." The little girl's red eyes turning to look at the gentlemanly Mister Hawking, she hurriedly approaches.

2010, January 7th, Avalon Private Cemetery

The rest that attended his father's funeral already gone, the blue eyed Mister Hawking looked at his father's grave. "Here lays Cornelius Hawking, born 1928 April 1st and died 2010 January 1st. His skills and determination brought CACHE to the hero it is, fighting until his end to make the world a better place. Let all that he worked for mean something." With no one watching, Hawking first broke into light chuckling and stopped himself once he began cackling mad. Hunched over with a mocking grin on his face, he spits on his father's grave.

"Idiots, as if they even knew what he intended... These eyes of mine never seen a worst monster. Though, I do have to give him some credit for being such an intelligent monster. However, I'll be elected to the council soon enough. When that happens, I'll actually ensure humanity survives. So farewell father, may your evil never be carried through." With those thoughts, Mister Hawking leaves with a blank face barely masking his hate.

2015, Present Day (March 5th), Avalon

Steadily approaching a gunmetal gray unit, tonfas slid out from under its arms. Its cycloptic eye carefully analyzing the approaching black mecha, the black mecha suddenly lets loose a burst of speed as its clawed right hand rushes forward. The gunmetal unit jumping to the side, the lenses of its eye focuses before unleashing a single focused beam at its attacker. The black mecha getting launched by the hit, it stabilizes itself before crashing into a building. "Rule number one of combat, never engage an enemy in melee combat if you don't know their capabilities."

Armor plating around the wrist of its right hand disengaging, the hand goes flying and wraps around one of the gunmetal unit's tonfas. The chain connecting the hand stiffening, the black mecha yanks the opposing unit to it before uppercutting with its left. The gunmetal unit crashing back into the ground, the black mecha's hand reconnects. "Rule number two of combat, never give your enemies an opportunity." Armor plating disengaging all over the black mecha, purple steam starts seeping from its body.

Moving much slower towards the downed unit, the ground under the black mecha starts bubbling. The gunmetal unit turning to look at it, it launches an eye beam at the other mecha's chest. Getting itself back up, fires two more lasers at the mecha's legs. The black mecha collapsing to the ground, the gunmetal unit hurriedly moves over to it. Laser coated tonfa cutting through its neck, the black mecha's head is severed.

-Tzzzt-

The screen fading to static, the twenty four year old man's green eye intensely focuses on his "students". "Rule number three of combat, don't do fancy crap if it'll cost you victory. The Neon Ravager in its base form, as you can tell, would of been fast enough to defeat the Cyclops Mark III. However, changing to the much slower Blight Form gave the Cyclops enough time to win. Feel free to do all the fancy crap you want, but get yourself killed stupidly because of it and I'll make sure never to remember you."

Stepping down from the pedestal as he stretches out his body, Edward takes a seat. "Anyways, we'll continue the lessons later. As you might know, today CACHE is running a few activation tests of new prototypes. The first of the tests, the Falchion, is scheduled to begin in three hours and end at 9:45 PM. I'm needed on standby in case something goes wrong, so we'll pick up the lessons at 10:25 PM." Getting up from his seat, Edward shoves his hands into his pockets as he starts to walk away "Until then."

2015, Present Day (March 5th), Somewhere

Fires burned all around, consuming all in a hellish red light and casting a glare on the dozens of mecha corpses strewn about the once-pristine field. A towering, jet-black unit strode through the chaos, crushing the husks of its fallen enemies underfoot. Wally looked up at it defiantly from the cockpit of his much-smaller robot.

"MUA HA HA!!! Did you CACHE buffoons truly think to match my power?! You are NOTHING to me! And now, I will crush this nuisance you call the UN, and usher in an age of true glory for all mankind!" the huge robot boomed, shaking visibly as its pilot laughed.

Wally's mech raised its weapons like David facing down Goliath, but before the dramatic battle could unfold, a familiar sound rang down from the sky.

It was the annoying sound of a high-pitched warning buzzer, whining over and over as the video simulation faded away from Wally's vision. It was replaced with the decidedly less exciting reality of his bunk on board the Raiden X.

"Aww damn it! What now?! I was just getting to the good part!" he pouted.

"Pardon the interruption. A situation has arisen. Class D. Your assistance requested," his mech's onboard AI replied in a silky smooth female voice.

"Class D, eh? Well I guess it could be worse. Open hatch to the cockpit! Let's get this show rolling!"

His craft had been alerted to a rogue mech within his operating range, and as per his role as a UN contractor, he was obligated to take it offline by any means necessary. As Wally climbed up the short ladder to his control room, the computer fired off relevant facts about the situation. It was some two-bit criminal escaped from a prison facility, apparently the guy had done this twice in the past already.... you would think he'd learn better eventually. It was anyone's guess how he got his hands on the mech, but it was an old model, mass-produced with minimal alterations. Easy pickings for Wally's custom rig but still dangerous enough to topple some buildings in a nearby town.

The Raiden blasted off into the sky and accelerated to near-max speed, soon coming into range of the target. Wally dipped down beneath the clouds to get a visual; terrified civilians were running like ants in the streets below while local fire crews struggled to contain the damage. There were no other mechs in sight, he must've been the first to arrive. That wasn't surprising given how fast his craft could fly.

Wally banked hard to line up a strafing run; as the fighter's laser cannons warmed up he plotted a firing pattern that would only pass through buildings that were already destroyed. Bursts of energy showered down on the rampaging mech below, causing it to stumble forward as its rear plating was burnt to a crisp. Wally circled around and lowered his craft down to a hover, several hundred feet off the ground and facing directly across from his target. He flipped on the Raiden's loudspeakers.

"Attention citizens of wherever the hell this is! The UN is here now! I will happily neutralize this machine. Flee as far away as possible, uh, in an orderly fashion!"

The rogue mecha was not impressed. It raised up its main weapon, a large cannon mounted on its right arm, and let fire. The Raiden's systems automatically initiated a roll as soon as the weapon began to take aim, easily avoiding the shot. Seeing it up close the opposing mecha was even trashier than he expected; there were several places where the plating rattled when it moved, and patches of rust adorned parts of its body. That thing was so old it probably didn't even have a targeting computer on board. Wally almost felt sorry for the poor bastard.

"Lower your weapon, disengage from your unit, and step out onto the street! Twenty seconds to comply!" Wally shouted over the speakers.

In response, steel flaps burst open on the enemy mech's shoulders, revealing arrays of rockets underneath. One press of a button released an electric pulse which fried their circuitry, sending the missiles spiraling off harmlessly in all directions. That kind of counter-measure would never work on a halfway recent model, but the thing he was facing here, it might as well be analog.

"C'mon, don't be stupid! Ten seconds to comply!"

No move from the opposing mech. Wally could almost see the gears turning in the pilot's head. Then it just raised its cannon and fired again.

"Hey, don't say I didn't warn ya!"

The Raiden darted forward, spinning as it did so to avoid the cannon's potshots. The black box-shaped structure attached to the bottom of the fighter's fuselage now began to split into eight equal parts, unfolding to become a set of spider-like limbs. Wally killed the rear thrusters, retracted the wings, and engaged the secondary engines mounted on the fighter's sides. He flipped the Raiden in mid-air so that the eight legs on its bottom were facing directly at its target, barreling towards the bipedal mech far too fast to avoid. The enemy mech raised its arms in desperation as the Raiden crashed spider-legs-first into it, to no avail; as the two mechs slid down the street, Wally's on top, the Raiden's robotic limbs pried the enemy mech's arms and legs apart from each other before pinning them to the ground.

"Wahahaha!! Weren't expecting that were ya?! This is my patented Class X Arachno-Fighter! I keep it updated with cutting-edge tech every single month. Did you really think you could take me on in that junker? Wahaha! Get that noise out of here, noob!"

Wally took manual control of one spider-leg and smashed it down on the enemy mech's cockpit, covering the escape hatch; now the pilot was trapped in there, and with the weight of Wally's substantially larger craft bearing down on it, the mech was entirely immobilized. With the threat now neutralized, Wally strapped out of his harness and started to climb back down to his living quarters. Other UN mechs would be on the scene any second and his craft's auto-pilot could take things from there.

In the meantime, he had an evil emperor to face down in VR!

edited 24th Jul '14 9:37:41 PM by CATS3688

2005, November 18th, CACHE Anima Barracks

In the early hours of the morning, before even the sun even came up, a group of sleepy eyed children were being herded into their new living quarters. Some lady was talking to them about something, probably welcoming them in, but a young squirrel girl, named Karen, was too busy looking at everything around to listen. She and the other kids were were being moved to what would be called their new home. At first she was a bit apprehensive, but as she was lead with the other kids to the cafeteria to discover that a feast of a breakfast was prepared for them. "Well, this is a good way to start out," she said aloud to the kid next to her. Even though she had started out worried, she had high hopes for the new change of scenery.

2006, March 14th, CACHE training center

"Karen," someone called out her name, but Karen wasn't able to see them. "Karen!" The voice got even louder. Before she even had the chance to react, a loud slamming sound caused her to open her eyes snap upright in her desk. She looked around to regain her sense of direction, as she did the instructor asked her, "Did you have a nice nap?"

Karen looked up at the instructor "Yes, I did. Thank you for being so nice to let me take it." There was a hint of sarcasm to her voice. The instructor went back to teaching her history lesson, a subject that was horribly dull to Karen. Luckily the bell rang and signaled for her to go to her next and favorite class, Mecha Shop. Maybe it was the fact that she had always loved building things, but there was something about working on a mecha that put her at ease. It was very obvious that she was able to find her way around the mecha with no problem. Her small size and squirrel genes allowed her to climb all in, over, and around the machines that were too big for her to actually operate.

2015, Present Day (March 5th) CACHE Avalon Mecha Bay

Karen found herself caught up in her work more than she had ever been before. There was the various repairs that she had to make, her own personal projects, and new prototypes that she hat to help with the inspections of. As she entered the bay, it was a buzz with activity, everyone running around doing their various tasks. She loved the high pace, the sound of machines whirring and tools clanking, and the smell of metal. A man ran up to Karen while she walked into the bay, "Hey Karen. How is it that you can stay so calm when the rest of us are all worked up over this big test of the prototype?"

Karen looked up at the mechas, admiring what giant marvels they were. "I guess I just don’t let it get to me. Keep it out of my mind and just keep my energy up." She told her coworker before she started to run off, but before she could get far, she heard him call out. "By the way, the boss doesn’t want you climbing on the outside of the mechas anymore. He says that’s what the scaffolding is for." Karen stopped, dropped her head, and sighed, "He takes all the fun out of working," she said before continuing into the bay.

Two Years Ago

"And your name, Sir?", said the (Female) recruiting officer.

The man smiled a Hot-Blooded smile, and calmly said, "The name's Samuel Doppler."

The officer finished typing up something, before saying, "Alright, head on over to your last evaluation and if you pass, you get the license."

He headed over to the mech was to be given, Eternal Symphony. Right now, it was hooked up to a rather impressive array of wires and thingies that did stuff that Sam understood only the basics of. No matter, he only need the basics, which happened to be that the spheres helped to restrict his mech's movement and actions in the physical world while he went though his final simulation test.

An hour ago

Samuel got out of bed with a little more enthusiasm than usual. That is to say, he quite literally vaulted off the bed, trying to take his time with some of the more important things, but still blazing through his morning routine.

Finally!, he thought. Finally, a chance to test my mettle with actual human pilots instead simulations! Hmm... I wonder what this team of ours is going to look like?

The last thing he had to do for the day was simple— get in his drivesuit. Sam's drivesuit was a primarily black bodysuit, with blue lines of varying hues marking the powerlines. The second layer was a hardened polymer armor, the pieces of which were a deep shade of blue.

Upon finishing this, Sam noticed that he had a message on his holopad.

"What's going on here?"

Now

Sam was quickly briefed on his mission — he was going to go after a small group of unlicensed pilots who happened to be causing quite the ruckus.

As he lowered himself into the pilot's harness, he gave his mech the activation order.

"Eternal Symphony... Rock on! "

edited 25th Jul '14 2:18:33 PM by OmegaShadowcry

2015, Present Day - Abandoned Street

"Try it now."

The thing about Avalon is that it gets attacked often. Be it by an ambush by a bunch of monsters, a planned attack by a more intelligent group of monsters, rogue pilot, rogue machine, whatever the cause may be there's always one defining factor that each of them share; collateral damage. And whenever something got destroyed - in this case, a street - Avalon cornered it off from the public so that the right people could get to work on fixing it up. Of course, such things take a day or two to verify, leaving the curious/adventurous/dumb people to wander through the wreckage as much as they pleased until the crew arrived.

It was also a great place for testing out newly fixed cannons.

Just that morning, the main cannon to the G1 T.A.N.K. had been dented something fierce when someone's practice shot on her new pistol ricocheted off a tin can and hit the barrel instead. So, after spending a good chunk of the mid-morning buffing, tweaking, and ironing it out, Jacob figured that it needed a proper test. So, he took it and his granddaughter out to one of the latest Ground Zeros. Ava herself had waited patiently inside the head for a good while while they moved out there, and her trigger finger was getting itchy. Once the go=ahead was said, the teen went into action.

Several wheel turns later, and the cannons were aimed at the right spot; a lone wall that survived the attack. It was crumbling, so it would've been demolished to make room anyways. She pulled out the little flap on the inside of the cannon's base, shunting into it one of the non-explosive rounds she had stocked in there. Closing and securing the small door, she loaded a smaller chamber up with gunpowder and the like, pulled a lever, and let it rip. A loud bang echoed through the empty street, and the round shot out the end with an impressive flash, obliterating the target as if it were nothing. Jacob, who was on the ground beside the machine, jumped into the air and clasped his hands together. "Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! Clean shot, hun!"

Upon contact with the wall, Ava clicked a button on her watch and checked the time. 1.21 seconds. With something of a sigh she pushed against the hatch above her and leaned out over the edge of the entrance. "Bit too long on that one, grandad. Might need to sand the inside of the barrel a bit." Jacob simply waved her complaint away. "Y'need to learn how to live in the moment, hun. For one thing we fixed the problem the somehow happened, and we just tore down a wall faster than those smug sons of bitches that call themselves 'experts'! That's gotta mean something to ya, doesn't it?"

She admitted, it was quite impressive, even for a relic like the T.A.N.K. But still, most things weren't up to the same caliber as the mechs they make today, even if it does have an extra 'oomph' to it. Still, she smiled at her grandfather's reaction. "I guess."

Samuel and Symphony arrived on the battlefield, a small, not-so-sleepy town. The two rogues where indeed causing quite the ruckus. One seemed to have a older ranged model, a type that was notorious for it's inefficiency when it came to ammo. The other appeared to be a custom CQC model, with bulky limbs and a stupidly-shiny finish.

Sam's voice boomed hammily over the loudspeakers.

"Well well well, what do we have here? A stack of tin cans and a fresh-from-production brawler, by the looks of things! I'm going to be generous and give you 15 seconds to back down, fellas."

The brawler's pilot, an equally-hamtastic male, boomed back, "Ha! This, coming from a fresh pilot. Your machine looks like it couldn't tear through tinfoil."

"Very funny, tough guy," Samuel shot back. "10 seconds."

"We aren't going to take orders from the likes of you, rookie!" replied the gunner's pilot, a rather hot-blooded woman.

"I suggest that you two put some ear plugs or something in, because it's about to get loud over here. 5 seconds."

"Ha, what are you going to do, c—"

"TIME'S UP!"

And with that, Symphony's Amplifier pods went straight to half-power as the mech began blasting a truncated version of "To Hell with Gattai!" out of it's main cannon. The brawler manged to boost of to the side in time. The gunner was not so lucky. One of it's shoulder cannons flew clean off, along with quite a few armored plates.

Stowing his audio cannon and switching to his fists, Sam met the brawler's charge head-on. The pilot clearly had at least been in a simulator before. It was doubtful that he had taken a sound-based mech like this into consideration, or, indeed, had even know about such mechs prior to right now.

"You know, I've seen worse pilots than you, but can you block?" Sam said while the two were engaged in a Brawler Lock.

"Block? Block what?" the other pilot said, barely managing to overpower Symphony.

Samuel chuckled in a rather malicious manner. "Block an axe," he said as he took his mecha-sized guitaraxe off of Symphony's back. The brawler was soon reduced to naught but a torso and a head.

"Bro!" cried out the gunner. "You'll pay for that."

Samuel said nothing and flipped his axe around, held it like a rifle, and fired a powerful thermal laser out of the base.

"Will I, now?" he said as he methodically sliced off the old mech's weapon barrels. "You know, I didn't need to use up that much of the charge on this thing, but I thought it looked pretty cool." He switched over to his comms system. "Control, rogues have been incapacitated, standing by until pick-up arrives."

"Copy that, Sam," replied the operator. "Good work out there today."

2015, Present Day (March 5th), Mecha Bay

"Kanker kut!" A feminine voice yelped from some crevice in the mecha's back plate, accompanied by an electric sizzling and a slight lurch from the machine, "Debiel trekvlek. Stomme..." Isa Van Waalwjik irritably pulled herself from the cramped interior of the battle mech, clambering across its back like a spider up a wall albeit with considerable more foreign expletives. Reaching the glass roofed cockpit she let her larger, right arm knock loudly on the top and making the tired pilot within jump.

"Hey! I told you not to start this thing until I said it was ready..." The pilot opened the cockpit and cautiously lent out from it, Isa already feeling the regret in his thoughts, "I'm so sorry, Kruisstuk. I just -" She raised a hand to stop the man mid-sentence, relaxing a little as she sensed his tiredness. "You are tired, it's alright - At least I can save money on coffee to wake me up, eh?" She smiled slightly to calm him, pulling over the ladder from a nearby platform, "You'd better have a rest before those tests start today. I will finish here, I likely already have too many hands..."

The pilot nodded thankfully and exited the mecha, "Thanks, I owe you one." Isa grinned as she descended to the repair site, "Yes, so you better leave quick before I make you pay it." With a wave the mutant turned off the power and returned to the crevice. It wouldn't take long to finish up, the damage wasn't too extensive after all though she was reluctant to get closer the crowds of bustling engineers and technicians below - Enough thoughts to give her a headache and her earphones had broken last week.

After a few minutes the mecha was ready to go again and Isa knew they needed help preparing the latest prototypes. This filled her with a little excitement though she had no major part in these particular designs, 3 years with CACHE didn't give her that much standing with Avalon but at east they were accepting here. People started at her arms and eyes far less than in even her home town and some even spoke Dutch.

CACHE Avalon Mecha Bay

The green eyes of one Samson Long were carefully going over data sent by his uncle, and he looked up from the tablet to glance at the Falchion. The humanoid white and blue Seelie standing silently, his eyes shift to his bored sister leaning against it half-asleep. "Seriously, the hell is wrong with Lev? It isn't like the thing even notices her... Faith. Why does Levi focus on that girl so much? The idiot is just getting brought down by Faith. Well, I better have a talk with Lev once Falchion's activation is done." Mind snapping to attention as he hears Karen's voice, his eyes rest on the squirrel girl as he listens to her conversation. "Gerald doesn't want her crawling over the mecha? We're CACHE so money isn't a problem... He's such a twat."

Thirty Minutes Ago:

Gerald Long: "By the way, the squirrel needs to be informed she isn't allowed to climb the mechs anymore. Those scratches add up over time, and the Falchion's detection system still has a few kinks to work out. Might even declare every giant thing it sees as an Eldritchian if it notices comestic damage, but kinks so eh. Better safe than sorry."

Present:

Noticing Karen was no longer talking with anyone Samson called out "Hey, Karen, how today been so far? I've already been reviewing data to further calibrate the Falchion. Everything looks fine so far, but you know how these things go." Running a hand through his almost white blonde hair, he briefly looks up at his sister to see Levi balancing on one leg. "So yeah, everything seems fine. By the way, have you been informed of Falchion's functions?"

CASCHE Avalon Mecha Bay

Karen looked up as she heard a voice say what she could only assume were some choice words in a different language. Sounds like someone is having a good time. One of the downsides of the job, if you weren't paying attention, you were liable to get hurt. Karen couldn't even count how many times her tail had doubled in size just because the hairs on it were standing on end.

Her attention moved to someone calling her name. She instantly recognized Samson, and ran right up to him. "Today hasn't been too bad so far, except for I'm apparently in trouble." Karen eyed the large white mecha. It almost looked like a knight in shining armor to her. She eventually caught sight of Levi and smiled at her. "Don't look too busy girl, they might think we're over working you," she called to Levi.

When asked about if she knew fuctions of the prototype Falchion, Karen shook her head "Nope, nope, no, never." She wasn't very good at lying. A good portion of her time had already been spent studying what it could do, but she just liked hearing it again. After all, this was the latest and greatest of the Mechas. "You should tell me all about it," she said with a slightly devious smile, feeling like she had pulled off the best con ever.

As Samuel pulled Symphony into the mecha bay, he saw some people chatting around what looked to be a prototype mech.

Well how long has that been there? he wondered.

As he climbed out his mech, he noti— Does that girl have a squirrel tail?

CACHE Avalon Mecha Bay

Isa hopped up the now fully functional mecha and flopped into its cockpit, putting it into a storage position before going through the shut down procedure. Below she could see Karen, a friend of hers also with biological differences, chatting to a few others though it was too far to sense what about. However a new arrival to the bay was at a similar altitude and his thoughts made her snicker slightly:

Does that girl have a squirrel tail? The pilot was evidently a bit shocked, making Isa sigh a little in disappointment. It seemed not everyone in CACHE was so used to those with non-standard biology. She opened a channel to the mecha, 'Eternal Symphony':

"Yes, she does eikel. Shouldn't you focusing on driving instead of chasing tail?" Isa laughed a little then turned off the comms and scrambled down to the ground. It was like descending into a smog of thoughts but Kruisstuk was used to this, though it did give her a headache from time to time. "Goededag, Karen!" She waved to the squirrel-like woman with her preferred right hand and wandered in her direction.

The light blonde ducking behind the railing upon being called out, Samson simply nodded sideways with disappointment though faint amusement on his face. Noticing Karen's rather bad attempt at lying, Samson gave her an amused look in response to her devious smile. Though, before he could speak he turned his head to look at the newest- "Shit its the telepath!" His eyes briefly reflecting his panic, he soon calms himself. He was used to weird biology, so Isa's form didn't scare him at all. However he isn't quite a trusting person, and having his thoughts or worse his 'dark secrets' read wasn't a fun idea.

Composing himself and thinking the words before speaking them, he spoke politely. "Greetings, Isa right? I was about to explain the Falchion's functions, and it couldn't hurt to include you." Looking from Karen and then at the Falchion Samson sees his sister affectionately rubbing her cheek against it. "Yeah... Why the hell is this normal for me?" Looking away from his sister, Samson clears his throat. "As you already know, the Falchion is a telekinetic Seelie. This telekinesis manifests as only moving itself, protecting its body, and at close ranges bursts of telekinetic force. The blades on its back have a core made with the same bio-material as the Falchion itself, allowing the blades to be manipulated freely by it. The blades can also generate plasma and lasers. However, the truly important part of it is the detection system it has. Using an experimental scanning system, the Falchion should be able to detect pure Eldritchians. Finally, its equipped with a basic AI that'll operate the mech should anything happen to its pilot. Oh and the pilot can have it drain their bioelectricity for a boost. Levi's a living generator so she'll be fine."

Mecha Bay Upper Level

Cuddling or whatever it is she's doing, Levi thinks to herself as she leans against the Falchion. "Hmm... Big sister affectionately calls Solarsis 'Sol', and this is gonna be my mecha. So what do I call him? Hmm..." Taking a moment to look over the Falchion, she puts her back to it as she continues. "Yeah, kind of looks likes a he... I know!" Suddenly striking a pose as she dramatically points a finger at the mech, she speaks with cheery determination "I shall dub thee Eternity Breaker, and with your blades reality shall kneel to our demands! Let the fragility of evil shatter before our might, as we use our power to forge a brighter future!" With that said, Levi instantly looks very annoyed "Aargh, why do I have to wait so long!?"

CACHE Avalon, Communication Room

Sitting alone is an almost white haired child, fourteen years old. Going over simulation data for the prototypes, completely absorbed in the work the child didn't notice when a completely armored figure approached. One mechanized hello later, and the startled child looks at the figure with one uncovered blue eye. Locked in a stare, the armored figure gives up first "~Sorry about that, you're just a lot of fun to mess with.~" The mute child just staring at the figure, the figure continues "~Anyways, I got someone to talk with. Keep that mind of yours sharp Leo.~"

Walking from Leo to a terminal containing contact information, he proceeds to send a message to Walter Cameron "~Greetings, this is James Keller, a member of CACHE Avalon's security division. We've noticed unauthorized demolition caused by a mech in one of the abandoned streets. They don't seem to be violent and are a low priority disturbance, but if you can make them leave that'll be great. We don't want them damaging any of the remaining structures or still usable remains, since that'll lengthen the time until the street's reopening. You will of course be paid.~" With the message sent, the figure looks back at the child still sitting from others.

Avalon Mecha Bay

Karen turned back to see Isa waving at her, of course she would recognize that voice and language anywhere. "morning Isa!" she waved back enthusiastically, not actually worried about if her greeting was time appropriate. It was always nice to see that she wasn't the only, so called, normal person, though she didn't care too much if someone was normal or not. She defiantly wasn't, and learned to embrace it. Looking back to where Levi was, she had ducked away. I didn't mean to scare her off. Then again, Levi did seem a little shy to Karen, so maybe she had overstepped.

Karen did feel a little bad for a moment, until Samson started to describe the Falchion and it's abilities. When he got to the part where he mentioned draining the pilot, her ears perked up a bit, before feeling bad for Levi again. I forgot all about that. After pausing for a moment, she asked, "So, wait, does that mean Levi is the only one that can pilot it?" It wasn't like she wanted to pilot it, she was too short, but that draining thing just got stuck in her head for the moment.

Disembarking from Symphony, Sam looked around for the pilot who had opened the channel. He just ended up deciding to head over to the little group he had seen.

"How are you, my fellow pilots? My name is Samuel Doppler, but then again, one of you probably already knows that."

He also proceeded to think a list of nonsense thoughts, as an attempt at some sort of mental white noise. He didn't think it would work, but that had never really stopped him from trying before.

CACHE Avalon Mecha Bay

Isa smiled to Karen as she returned the greeting, albeit without paying heed to the time of day though given how much the girl slept that was hardly surprising. She was hard working when awake however and not inclined to deceptive or malicious thoughts which was very endearing to a telepath compared to most people. Samson Long on the other hand seemed to be less open to say the least. She was used to people being cautious of her finding the secrets within their minds, ignorant of the fact that doing so was both rude and frequently disgusting.

This didn't seem like the case however, looking deeper bringing forth... well, it sounded like another voice but very faint and elusive. Perhaps it was just interference from someone else or maybe not. Realising she was staring Isa gave an apologetic, embarrassed smile, "Yes, and you are Samson. A pleasure to meet you properly." She replied curtly, happy to gain more detail on the Falchion. A fascinating design, truly. Karen's concern for Levi, the intended pilot, was a tad amusing to Isa as she could feel the girl's excitement even from down here. "Very impressive-"

Isa sighed deeply as she felt Doppler approach and push in on the conversation. He was trying to mask his true thoughts with random words - childish really, making her chuckle before properly talking to him, "Yes, I know your name... Is thinking up nonsense really necessary?" She crossed all her arms both in front and behind her body, appraising the ostentatious pilot. After a moment she offered a hand, "Isa Van Waalwjik."

Scratching the back of his neck with his right hand, Samson speaks coolly "Not really, its just a procaution in case something goes wrong with the bioelectricity absorber. This is a simple activation test, so it isn't like she's expected to fight anything. Once the Falchion has been deemed operational an official pilot will be assigned." "Who he better not decide is Levi."

Turning to look at the pilot Samuel Doppler, Samson raises his right eyebrow slightly as if questioning him. Folding his arms in front of himself, Samson speaks "We're rather busy working on the Falchion. Besides that, we're perfectly fine. Though the Falchion's activation won't be for another few hours, so it'll be pretty boring just hanging around. There's probably something the commander could have you do."

Turning to look at Isa, he simply gives her an accusing look. "Well, ever since the Eldritchians first appeared all sorts of weird stuff has happened. Paranoia of mind readers is rather justified, and all you did was strengthened his paranoia by outright calling him out. Perhaps next time you should innocently ask if they are, and accuse them of assuming just because of your mutations? Telepathy is best kept a secret."

Isa looked at Samson for a long time after he delivered his tirade, the words stung but she showed no sign of emotion. "I am sorry, I did not mean any intrusion." She said finally, deciding she had better get back to work and cease socializing. She was only making them uncomfortable anyway, "I had better help with the set up. Doei..." With that the mutant purposefully strode off to lend a hand or four getting Falchion ready for the testing, privately feeling like a belligerent fool.

edited 27th Jul '14 8:07:57 PM by Lt.BGob

Despite its size, the titanic black-armored mecha was sent reeling by Wally's assault. His own craft, assembled from all the best parts he'd found along his journey and streamlined to perfection, flashed back and forth at dizzying speeds. It was small, but it left dozens of afterimages as it flew round and round its target, giving the illusion of a large army attacking instead of a single mech.

"This is it! FIRE EVERYTHING!"

Wally's mech exploded with light as more guns and rockets burst out of its body somehow, sending a veritable blizzard of ordinance at the evil titan. The giant black mech buckled under the onslaught, armor plating and internal components falling off of it in several places.

"NOOO! Impossible!" it cried out.

"I'll send you to hell! Thermo-nuclear vortex, ACTIVATE!" Wally shouted.

Just before this final blow could be dealt, a familiar sound interrupted the action. The simulation faded away from Wally's vision.

"~Greetings, this is James Keller, a member of CACHE Avalon's security division. We've noticed unauthorized demolition caused by a mech in one of the abandoned streets. They don't seem to be violent and are a low priority disturbance, but if you can make them leave that'll be great. We don't want them damaging any of the remaining structures or still usable remains, since that'll lengthen the time until the street's reopening. You will of course be paid.~" a voice spoke over the comm.

"For crying out loud!! You'd better flippin' pay me! Grrrr....."

This job wasn't even anything fun like the last one, it was just scaring off some stupid kids, most likely. That was what "unauthorized demolition" usually meant, the little twerps thought that just cause an area was abandoned, no one would notice if they indulged their inner pyros. Oh well, it was annoying to be interrupted, but it came with the territory. While Wally might curse outwardly, in reality he was grateful for this job, and he was going to do it.... even the crappy parts of it.

"Ok Raiden, let's get moving," Wally said with a sigh.

—-

Only a few minutes passed before he arrived at the target destination. Wally remembered this particular rampage, it had only happened a few days ago. He'd gone in to stop it but a couple of showboaters had beaten him to the punch somehow, sort of a shame. As he approached the troublemakers he was tasked with beating off, he rubbed his eyes in disbelief. Was that a T.A.N.K?

"Eldritch-thingie's sake, what is this, Old-Ass Mecha Day?"

Wally circled around the machine once to make sure it noticed him, then dropped to a hover a couple hundred feet above it. Loudspeaker time.

"Attention people in that thing. This area is off-limits to the public. That means you. I trust your relic there just had a navigation malfunction, right?" his voice boomed out to the T.A.N.K below.

edited 27th Jul '14 8:24:15 PM by CATS3688

Avalon Mecha Bay

A sigh of relief escaped Karen, “That’s good. I wouldn’t want her to go through what some of these other pilots have to go through.” Levi seemed a little too timid to be in combat. Although, Karen wondered about herself. If she would be any good in a mecha fight. Probably not, as any real conflict wasn’t something she tried to be a part of.

Karen laughed a little as Samuel introduced himself. Apparently he had already had a run in with Isa. "Not all of us are pilots, after all, do I look like I can reach the pedals?" she asked him jokingly. "My name's Karen, I'm one of the mechanics here." Even though she did have a mecha of her own, the girl never really saw herself as a pilot, especially since her mecha had next to nothing in the way of fire power.

Before she knew what was going on, Karen had heard Isa apologizing for something, before walking away, using work as a pretense. Obviously she had missed something while joking with Samuel. “I should probably get to work too,” she said with a smile before rushing off to catch up with Isa. Once she managed to get up alongside the telepathic girl, Karen matched her pace. “Hey, don’t worry about it. You know how people get.” She tried what she could to comfort Isa, but didn’t really have the right words. At the very least, she was there for her.

2015, Present Day (March 5th), Avalon Northern Docks

Minerva found herself irritated, once again, out on the field dealing with her own legacy. Her Dark Strider was tailing an unmanned guard mech whose AI went rogue. Probably a third gen, those were always so tricky... of course, not to a fault of their own. There were days that she almost snapped, almost went rogue herself, she liked humanity but she had found throughout her life that they could be unbelievably stupid. Gen 3 of the mech AI was a shining example, badly retrofitted from herself and then mass-produced, prone to snap, way too independent, not unlike the 2nd Gen, but none of the intended freedom their older sisters, so unless they had a good psychologist or pilot they were doomed. She caught up with the drone and jumped on it, latching on to it and using her tail to interface with it.

She found her, irritated, angry, confused... apparently the owner hadn't been taking care of her in particular, insulting her at every turn and even threatening to reprogram, the asshole, she eased her down and talked with her, already making the paper work against the security firm remotely. Once the situation was defused she walked her down to her hangar and left. She resumed the overseeing of the maintenance to her gynoid bodies. In particular preparing one for the test drive of a new mech, exciting stuff.

Isa sighed in an exasperated fashion, "Yes, and that knowing is the problem I am afraid..." She commented with dry humor, "That Samson is stranger than most, I think and... It is not for me to say." She added on a more serious note before breaking into a half-hearted smile, glad to a good friend like Karen and not wanting to bring her down, "People suck. Let's go talk to some machines, hmm?" She indicated the Falchion and set to work preparing the great machine for its showcase.

edited 28th Jul '14 5:35:19 PM by Lt.BGob

Samuel looked down at his holopad, expecting to see something, but it was surprisingly devoid of messages at the moment.

"Well that's disappointing. I was expecting at least a notice about taking care when using sonic weapons... Oh well."

He stowed the pad, collapsing it back down to a thin, dark rod. He briefly wondered if anyone was going to scavenge the shoulder cannon that he had blown off of the gunner mech, almost half-jokingly.

"So, anybody have any information— beyond the name —of this mech?" he said, refering to the Falchion.

Looking at Samuel, Samson relaxes his stance and speaks casually "Its a fast multi-range telekinetic unit powered by electricity best suited for mid and long ranged use, equipped with an enemy detection system and specially designed AI based off the fourth generation. The base design was made by our very own head of mecha, Gerald Long. That, however, is all you're allowed to know." Turning around to walk away, he speaks once more "If you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work calibrating the Falchion."

9:30 PM, Upper Level Mecha Bay

Samson watching the Falchion as the last of the work finishes up, a small smile is etched on his face. "By performing this test, she'll finally be able to stop obsessing about piloting. She'll realize how much work and effort is needed, crashing against how unfocused she is. She'll be able to truly enjoy life for once, with-" "Hey, why the hell you're just staring at the Falchion? Always knew you were a deviant, but a giant robot really can't be a good partner." His smile turning into a look of horror, he turns his head around to look. Standing proudly with a smug look on her face, red eyes pierce into his soul as short fiery red hair becomes the only thing he can see.

Shaking his head before looking at her, his eyes looked her over to identity her outfit of the day. "How come you never wear 'girly' clothes you psychotic ironing board? Though I do like Mao's outfit from Disgaea 3." Eyebrows narrowing in anger as she points accusingly, she speaks somewhat loudly "I'm not psychotic you dirty sexual deviant, my greatness is simply too advanced for a puny unenlightened mind such as yours!" Crossing her arms as she looks to the side, she speaks slightly annoyed "Besides, I feel really weird whenever I wear 'girly' clothes..."

Lightly laughing at her reply and getting an angry look from her, Samson's face and voice become serious. "Faith, my sister does not need you. Once she's done with the test, she won't even want to be a pilot anymore. Your influencing of her would be for naught as a result. I care for my sister's happiness, so do you?" Her face showing an offended look, her arms drop to her sides. Walking past Samson to the right side of Falchion, Faith calls back "Well screw you too, I was simply being nice enough to let her bask in my glory." His eyes focused on her retreating backside, his hands slide into his pockets as he turns back to the Falchion. "I really hope Levi isn't made this thing's pilot..."

9:38 PM, Inside Falchion's Cockpit

Gripping the controls tightly, Levi has been whistling a random jaunty tone composed from her knowledge of numerous jaunty tones from video games. Eyes wandering over the cockpit, mild disappointment filled her when she learned it wasn't motion capture. "So I don't get to make this puppy dance, that's alright... This is so lame! I hate sitting, but just making this thing move with no flair is worst!" With one look of annoyance on her face, the comms crackle to life as her father's voice come through "~Levi, you see that big red button telling you not to push which you intrinsically obeyed? That's the activation button, feeling kind of stupid huh? Anyways, once you start the Seelie the onboard AI will coordinate with you to perform the mech. I'll call back in once the activation has been proven successful.~"

Smile on her face as she slammed down the button, the cockpit becomes filled with light as the mech comes to life. One blue screen over her head crackling to life, a monotone girl's voice speaks "~Activation of the Falchion unit successful, pilot identified as Levi Victoria Long. Eldritchian Detection System activating, please wait until scanning completes.~" Stretching out her arms and shoulders, Levi slumps back in her seat a little. "Well, this makes my previous conclusion of Falchion a male kind of weird..." Straightening back up upon hearing the crackling of the comms, she listens intently.

"~Now Levi, the first part of controlling-~" Suddenly warning sirens go off as the cockpit turns red, the monotone AI speaking "~Multiple Eldritchians detected, Eldritchian detected in cockpit. Biology confirms invading Eldritchian to be Electric Genesis, known for generating and weaponizing bioelectricity. Conclusion, Electric Genesis intends to sabotage this unit so its allies may go unhindered. Activating bioelectricity absorber and locking cockpit. Proceeding to take direct control of this unit so as to fight off the Eldritchians until UN reinforcements arrive.~"

9:45 PM, Mecha Hanger

Various people running about trying to figure out what happened and trying to regain control, the Falchion bursts feel from its restraints as it lets loose a screech. Dashing towards the hanger doors, and tearing it open the Falchion flies out into the city.

Samuel had been watching from an observation platform just a minute ago. He stood in stunned silence as he watched Flachion go rogue. He wondered just what this thing was fully capable of. Now, however, he was scrambling to get to Symphony. He had no intents of launching until the others got to their mechs.

"Of all the accursed, hell-born malfunctions..."

He scrambled back up the cockpit and activate his comms.

"I suggest that all pilots stop gawking and get in their machines, ASAP!"

CACHE Avalon Mecha Bay - Present

Sibrand stood stock still in Avalon's Mecha Bay as James worked away at reloading his beloved Mecha's flechette cannon one shell at a time. As James worked at reloading the massive shotgun, Sibrand's sound system was blasting [[www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo Y Sw GN Gks Q a song he felt was ideal for doing work on such a large scale. Despite knowing that it would likely be easier for him to make his repairs on Sibrand with some help, James chose to work alone simply because he was proud of the fact that he had rebuilt Sibrand by himself and believed that he knew his Mech well enough to maintain it without help.

Once he had loaded the last shell into place, James used a remote to switch off Sibrand's sound system and began to make his way down to ground level while idly humming the tune he'd just been listening to. Despite spending a fair amount of time in Avalon's Mecha Bay, James hadn't really gotten to know many of the other pilots due mostly to him spending most of his time attempting to improve Sibrand (Sibrand wasn't originally built to be a combat Mecha and thus requires a lot of recalibrations).

James had been halfway down to the main floor when the Falchion tore free from its restraints and flew out towards its freedom. With an exclamation of "GOD DAMMIT!", James began the trip back to Sibrand's cockpit as fast as he could.

After a few minutes of non-stop running and climbing staircases, James had made it into Sibrand's cockpit and had his trusty Mecha up and running in under two minutes. As Sibrand began making its way out of the Mecha Bay, James revved his Mecha's chainsaw a few times, sending a mighty mechanical roar throughout the Mecha Bay as Sibrand began moving at a steady pace after the Falchion.