12.1
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For just about anybody else, upgrading Augmentations from the old generations to the newest would be a very simple process. Take the C6 injections and wait.
In absolute truth, Raven was likely no different. C6 Augmentations were gradual and thorough.
Even so, however, for Raven in particular, I could allow absolutely nothing to go wrong. Therefore, the entire procedure gets my personal attention.
There were, however, only two places on t...
2025-06-30 12:45:30 +0000 UTC
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12.0
+++
The post-war plans had been utterly meticulous.
They had been assembled over the course of years. Data had been gathered. Information had been compared. Projections had been formed. Refinements had been made continuously.
Changes had been made almost as often, too. Not big ones, mind. They were small changes instead, taking into account what had been used up, what had been lost, what had been developed, and what had entered and left the realms...
2025-06-26 14:33:27 +0000 UTC
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11.8
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With a brand new entranceway, it took Gamma Squad absolutely no time at all to make their way in.
The sheer depth that the UW-CO had penetrated provided, entirely unintentionally, easy access to a lot of the Grid’s internals. A brand new corridor had been burned through multiple levels, multiple sections, and multiple zones. Maneuvering within this new accessway wasn’t the easiest on account of how thin it was, but it hadn’t existed a minute a...
2025-06-24 14:17:11 +0000 UTC
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11.7
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Assault Armour, at close range, was spectacularly dangerous. All that energy, the dangerous oscillation, the destructive interference, released in a single burst.
How could it not be dangerous? How could it not be so spectacular?
In perfect condition the CATAPHRACT was armoured enough to withstand an Armored Core’s Assault Armour. It was a large machine, after all, even if it was a little ridiculous.
CATAPHRACT BALAM,...
2025-06-20 13:27:57 +0000 UTC
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11.6
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A wall of metal blasted towards Raven and Ayre. Both of them split up, one going left and the other going right.
CATAPHRACT BALAM went straight through the middle of them, Boosters flaring with a truly obscene amount of energy. Michigan did not slow down. Instead, the machine’s wheels turned and twisted, rearranging. More Boosters ignited all over the giant machine, and it turned with alarming speed.
This also incidentally ...
2025-06-18 14:10:36 +0000 UTC
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11.5
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The only thing that had stopped me from just outright obliterating Arquebus and Balam via orbital bombardment was the optics of that situation. It was generally rather frowned upon in the Human Sphere to be so utterly free with weapons of mass destruction, though there were always exceptions.
Doing it to the PCA was simple irony. Everybody could appreciate that.
Aside from the PCA, though, since I hadn’t wanted the reputation of the first al...
2025-06-16 13:23:52 +0000 UTC
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11.4
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Freud’s drones streamed out again, moving once more to orbit his AC. He held off on firing for the moment, however.
Instead, it was his blade that lit up again.
Dolmayan obliged, his own blade flaring. Both of them made simultaneous flicks, sending a pair of preliminary Bladewaves at each other. Another detonation occurred, but Freud didn’t care, and he simply went straight through it.
The smoke and debris provided at least some cove...
2025-06-12 13:22:32 +0000 UTC
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11.3
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This time around, it was Dolmayan who took the first shot, though ‘shot’ wasn’t quite accurate. He chose to attack with the Coral Oscillator on his left arm, the weapon making a brief, but piercing, shriek as it activated.
METS ASTGHIK’s arm was flung from right to left. The Oscillator glowed intensely, pulsating with crimson lightning. Coral particles were gathered, arranged, and then launched.
An arc of Coral shot outwards, flicked f...
2025-06-10 13:00:24 +0000 UTC
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11.2
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With the Enforcement System’s Mainframe under my control, there was nothing to even slow down my army from leaving Watchpoint Alpha behind.
I simply opened all the doors and commanded all the machines to stand aside.
And so, up they came. A flood of C-Weapons, emerging from the cavern underneath the mainframe.
The first ones out were the fastest. CEL 240 models raced neck-in-neck with SOL 644s. The former’s smaller size and ...
2025-06-06 10:50:42 +0000 UTC
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11.1
+++
It was sheer irony that the most protected and most important part of the PCA’s entire apparatus was also the most vulnerable, to me.
It was something I found greatly amusing. I could have, at any point in time, simply reached in and ripped out the heart of the beast. Put an end to it all... I had refrained, however, because it had never been the right time to do it.
The problem was always that it wasn’t just the Enforcem...
2025-06-04 21:02:48 +0000 UTC
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11.0
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Alright.
Alright alright alright.
Branch is alive, but no longer active. The PCA is moving in the way that I need them to move. Arquebus and Balam are holding on desperately, but for the moment they’re hunkered down.
The RLF has control over Belius. All meaningful PCA forces have been routed from the continent. The Independents have been shifted around significantly, and a lot of them are in no position whatsoever to cause problems.
2025-06-02 12:41:06 +0000 UTC
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10.8
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Going back and forth took a decent bit of time, but I eventually got it all worked out. When I had, the only thing that remained was the briefing.
“I’m sure it doesn’t come as any surprise to you by now, but there are, in fact, even more secret groups operating to their own ends on this planet.” I began. “Meet Branch, a group of hacktivists that have aligned themselves against the PCA.” I projected a series of readout...
2025-05-29 12:54:37 +0000 UTC
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10.7
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I didn’t bother to stick around for what would come next. I just gave them their privacy and left them to it.
Perhaps this was foolish. This entire group had come here with the ultimate plan of setting the Coral alight again, after all. Leaving them to do their thing was, by most definitions, not exactly a good idea.
Honestly, though? It didn’t really matter. Even if I wasn’t there to keep an eye on their chats, Ayre was, but ev...
2025-05-27 13:17:37 +0000 UTC
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10.i-2
+++
“Alright.” Carla spoke. “Let’s lay it all down. Chatty, do me a favour and keep track, would you?”
“Yes, Chief.”
“Thanks. Okay, let’s start with the most important: Coral is apparently intelligent and nobody noticed.” Carla stated. “Do we perhaps have any problems with the evidence of that?”
“That video of you at three AM was pretty damned convincing, boss.
2025-05-23 13:24:36 +0000 UTC
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10.i
+++
The mission had been like any other. Arquebus wanted a PCA base destroyed and their resources reduced. All he had to do was release the Hound to do the job, and 621 would handle the rest. He himself only provided remote support at best, and it was wholly unnecessary in the face of 621’s absurd skill.
Walter recognized from the start that Arquebus was hoping 621 would die, but even so, it wasn’t an outright suicide mission, and the stated goal wa...
2025-05-21 14:08:55 +0000 UTC
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10.6
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Carla didn’t answer immediately. I was perfectly fine with that, to be honest. It gave me the opportunity to just keep going, and that was great, because there were some things that really wanted to complain about.
“I didn’t really understand the whole thing before then, you know?” I said. “You Humans exist in such a limited, bound way. The entirety of your consciousness is ...
2025-05-19 13:08:52 +0000 UTC
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10.5
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“Alright then.” I spoke. “Let’s talk.”
Carla and Walter were present, of course. Also present was RaD, which meant the full gamut of RRI survivors.
Chatty, as well.
I could detect an additional link, though. Not from this side of things, but from the other end. 621 was patched in through Walter’s link, which also meant that Ayre happened to be listening in.
“Have you figured it out, yet?...
2025-05-15 13:10:51 +0000 UTC
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10.4
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There was one, very brief, moment of silence. A single instant where everyone on the opposite side of the battlefield was afforded the chance to realize precisely how fucked they were.
Ten seconds ago, it had been Raven, the eternally dangerous and infinitely infuriating threat, alone against an army. Ten seconds ago, the largest C-Weapon that had ever been built moved to destroy Raven, to finally end that threat that had plagued the PCA co...
2025-05-13 12:59:57 +0000 UTC
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10.3
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I was beginning to run into a problem that I hadn’t been expecting to have. A strange situation, where all of sudden, something that had been true for three decades simply wasn’t anymore.
The whole thing with Balam and Arquebus had increased the pace that we were all moving at, but it ultimately hadn’t changed things, in the end. For five years, the Megacorps had been... steady. Reasonably predictable.
When 621 had showed up?
Thing...
2025-05-09 13:22:36 +0000 UTC
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10.2
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The battle that followed was quick, violent, and utterly lethal. Six ACs versus the entire PCA army, and the former went through the latter like a hot knife through butter.
It was a chaotic clusterfuck. The PCA’s army had not been prepared to lose the Warship, and it showed. Cohesion had been lost, and the army had broken up into numerous different parts rather than fighting as a cohesive whole.
621 chose to go after an AH12B first. My Firek...
2025-05-07 13:16:45 +0000 UTC
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10.1
+++
It was just one ship, for the moment. It posed no threat to 621, and soon enough there was a Warship’s wreck decorating the surface of the Ice Field.
That, however, was just beginning.
Five years ago, the PCA had pulled out of Belius. In doing so, they had left the megacorporations to have free reign so long as they didn’t try to leave the continent.
Their intentions had been very obvious. The PCA wanted the Megacorps to dea...
2025-05-05 11:58:00 +0000 UTC
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10.0
+++
When I was done teasing Ayre for the day, I went back to work. I had a bunch of shit I suddenly needed to do, and with how rapidly things were accelerating, it was better to stay on top of things.
Dolmayan’s gift was nearly ready. The final stages of assembly had been completed, all checks had passed, and now the only thing that was left was the paintjob. That wouldn’t take very long to finish, and when it was done, I’d start to transport it.<...
2025-05-01 14:01:43 +0000 UTC
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9.8
+++
The spontaneous detonation of the Howling Head Bay Area was both entirely expected and completely planned for. My sensors had been watching for it, keyed to alert me the moment it happened.
I was, for the most part, done with Dolmayan’s gift by then. Everything that required my actual direct attention was done, at the very least, and the rest of it could be handled by the automated systems that were in place. I left them to it and got to work.
<...
2025-04-29 13:17:11 +0000 UTC
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9.i
+++
It was a very rare occasion where her mother asked anything of her.
It was a very rare occasion where her mother asked anything of any of her siblings, if Ayre were to be more accurate.
Her mother was... not a stifling presence in the lives of Ayre or her siblings. That was not to say that her mother was distant, or somehow not present, of course! Their mother was always there.
Their mother couldn’t not
2025-04-25 12:11:15 +0000 UTC
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9.7
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Things were quiet in Belius.
It was... unusual. For the past five-ish years, the conflicts had been endless. Unrelenting. The Megacorporations were always either planning something or doing something, usually both at the same time. The pace of their operations had been relentless...
Until now.
A major operation made by the both of them, with both parts launching multiple side operations and failing them, leading up to a combined assault w...
2025-04-23 12:37:31 +0000 UTC
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9.6
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Freud was currently on fire, missing an arm, and heavily damaged on top of all of that. Until he was dead, this was not a meaningful reduction of his threat level.
Nile was in the process of being torn apart by Rusty. Unfortunately for him, there really wasn’t anything he could do to remedy this situation, because Rusty was both the better pilot and the more optimally equipped of the two.
Michigan was still alive, but his opponent was 621.
2025-04-21 12:49:53 +0000 UTC
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9.5
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Freud shot forwards, LOCKSMITH shifting into pure aggression. Dolmayan met his joyous assault with undaunted determination, ASTGHIK clashing with the other AC with grand fury.
Neither had been messing around before, but now both of them had acquired the measure of their opponents. The battle had moved, then, into something that was all imminent lethality, delayed only by the mutual skill of the both of them.
Every shot was one that was aimed to...
2025-04-17 11:44:30 +0000 UTC
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9.4
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“Hear me, scavengers!” Dolmayan called over the comms, broadcasting out in the open. “You’ll find nothing you seek here! Forged in ash, we stand as one!”
This... was going to be complicated.
Mmm. I made a mistake, here. I really should have had a bit more forces in the area just in case. The only things I can spare right this instant are the Antigens, and those... are things that I don’t really want to reveal. Sure...
2025-04-15 12:22:42 +0000 UTC
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9.3
+++
Hopefully soon, I said.
Evidently not just yet, though.
The aftermath of the assault on the Gallia Dam Complex was, not to put too fine a point on it, an absolute shitshow for Balam. Arquebus as well, but only to a lesser extent.
The megacorps were three for three on failed major assaults against the RLF. They could not break the sensor nets, they could not destroy the mobile fortress that was the Strider, and they’d failed to breach th...
2025-04-11 10:36:16 +0000 UTC
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9.2
+++
“I see what you meant about this mercenary.” Flatwell said, leaning forwards with his chin resting on a hand. “This is...”
He paused for a moment, searching for the right words.
“This is insane.” Flatwell said. “How the hell did somebody this good get put on ice?”
“Good question.” I spoke. “No idea. I’m not entirely sure that 621 ever went through the full certification and te...
2025-04-09 11:42:44 +0000 UTC
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