Haven of Zion Chapter 1

Chapter 1 " A Nasty Spill"

*Yawn!!....*

"Ahh! Freakin' sunlight!" exclaimed Ed as he jumps out of his bed to make his breakfast.

"Microwave, reheat last night's dinner. NOW!"

As he said to the odd looking appliance.

"That wouldn't be very wise Ed, as doing so would create an upset stomach and heavily affect your Armored Core training regimen."

A female voice came from what was supposed to be making Ed's breakfast. A sleek looking android that does almost everything for Ed around his apartment complex. He refers to her as 'Sis' because he grew up as an only child with no one to hang out with.

"Aw come on Sis I'm freaking hungry and there's nothing else..."

All of a sudden a series of short interval beeps came from Sis' eyes as they glowed a red-orange y type color.

"Incoming call from:

-DANIEL- (D.Roberts caller I.D.)

Shall I answer it Ed?"

"Yeah it's probably important anyways>"

A wide-screen appeared from Sis' eyes onto the wall while Ed was eating his stale cornflakes and chopped banana.

"Hey Ed!!"
A man with a beard and goatee shouted at Ed with such excitement.

"What's up bro? You made a breakthrough with that rifle you were supposedly workin' on?"

"Umm... no that's still in devo* man you know that! But the reason I called is because I saw something awesome and spectacular I thought I'd share it with ya. Sis should be receiving a file from the VM Arena"

"Uh okay what's big news about then Danny?"

"DOWNLOADING FILE:

VMARENASTATISTICS.exe

Percentage Rate: 95% Complete"

"File download complete. Opening list of ravens from the Virtual Mission Arena..."

"Holy crap!!" As Edward spit the last of his orange juice across the kitchen, hitting Sis on mistake.

"You're lucky I'm 100% liquid spillage resistant, Edward." said Sis sounding agitated after Ed's mistake.

"Yeah sorry Sis, but I couldn't help it after what I just saw on the wall."

The screen flickered off and on and a few seconds later communications with Daniel were restored.

"Whoa dude that was weird man. Hope Sis is okay. Anywho I assume you know now who's Number #1 in the VMArena?"

"Yeah, but it kind of surprised me," as he said with light sarcasm "that she's at the top instead of her sister Anna."

A picture of a dark blonde female appeared on the wall.

" I.D. Verified:

Raven: Reina Song

Mission Completion Rate: 99%

Raven Rank: "S"
(To get an S rank in VMA you must finish each mission in the time allotted while at the same time finding and completing the hidden objectives in every mission.)

Pilot AC: Battle♀Bunny; a heavyweight AC that utilizes core exceed orbits, combined with hi-laser rifle and rapid fire handgun to create thermal stress for enemy opposition.

AC Rank: A

Do you wish to read about any of the available ravens in the arena Edward?" said Sis.

"No." says Ed as he slams his glass onto the table, thankfully for Sis' sake the glass was empty.

As Edward walked towards his room he opened his closet door to reveal nothing, but a suit and some gym shorts.
He donned his leather pilot suit and began making his way to the AC312 Garage where his armored core was being repaired.

When he approached the garage he heard a series of loud yelling and banging noises from what sounded like giant machines clashing together.

"Awesome, you guys finished the repairs on Black-Fox yet?"

"Yeah Ed you arrived just in time dude! You ACs right arm sustained near-critical damage during that last arena mission of yours. Tsk, almost blown off it's left arm trying to blade the XIVth Nineball AI. *giggle* Watching the replay you'd think you were on--"

"Shut it Earl..."

Edward stood before his machine. A giant armored bipedal humanoid weapon called Armored Core.

" Heh, that last mission just about drove me nuts man. I mean that thing was faster than--"

Before Ed could finish he was interrupted by a screeching noise coming from the garage doors.

" Edward!! ", yelled the tall, enigmatic female. " E.J. I've been looking for you! "

" Yes mother I-I-I mean..Whoa An-- "

*WHAM!!*

" Ugh...right in the urchins...agh...."

" Next time don't refer to me as mother m-kay? ", said Anna with an authoritative voice. "

The tall woman took off her black helmet revealing her long red hair. But when Ed saw her face after grappling his cojones he already knew what she had to say.

" E.J. something's going on at New Mirage that I think you'd be interested in. It's about... "

"... Tech Boys new weapons right? Listen I already know what's going to happen and I'm going to be first in line when it comes out! "

" Ed the documents for the prototype weapon Tech Boy was developing were stolen! "

" *Gasp* . . . "
Ed's jaw dropped to the floor harder than a macaroni & brick dinner on Tuesdays.

"Well who the hell did it?," said Ed questioning Anna " I must know who did it otherwise I'm just gonna--"

" E.J. we still don't know who did it, but Tech Boy is working on a list of ravens who might be suspect to the whole thing. "

Ed's eyes filled up with rage after Anna told him what happened to the near-complete weapon Tech Boy promised E.J. thinking;

" I'm going to kill the son of a bitch who stole those docs."

" I know how you feel Ed that's why...what the?!"

"...What? What's up girl? "

For a brief moment Anna saw something fly behind the garage window behind Ed. It was moving very fast going back and forth, traveling to the east. Suddenly...

* AC312 Garage E-Com *

"Attention!," the klaxon blared on the walls as everyone and everything in the garage was in panic. "All personnel evacuate the facility immediately! A rogue AC has invaded the southeast garage, AC 31-1, and has just destroyed one of our fuel tanks. My god! It's heading for the--"

Silence.

The intercom fizzled out and exploded. Several explosions were heard outside of the garage doors behind Ed and Anna.

Ed began darting to his AC Black Fox.

"Anna let's move NOW!" shouted E.J.

"Gotcha! I'll call for air support while you hop into your AC. I'll catch up with you shortly."

" Alright Anna. They better haul ass over here because things are starting to get ugly.. "

As Ed and Anna headed towards their ACs, Ed received an emergency message from his android Sis:

" Ed I have some odd information on the AC that Black Fox spotted at the AC 31-2 garage. "

" Wait How did you know... " Ed climbed into the core of his AC, putting on his raven's battle helmet.

" I'm interlinked to your ACs sight lock. As long as it has a shoulder mounted radar and a head part equipped I can see anything that's going on around you and Black Fox. "

" Okay what about this rogue AC that's about to kill us? " saying with a slight chuckle. As thought he thinks this rogue AC is nothing new to him as he's been through 296 Virtual Arena Missions.

" It's now uploaded to your ACs computer stored in the head H11-QUEEN, speaking of which was upgraded without my permission wasn't it? "

* CLiCK ! *

" Heh heh. "

As communications with Sis ended, Ed started his ACs boosters and was beginning to turn on his Overboost function. All of a sudden his AC began to talk to him.

" Unidentified AS detected.

Unit is equipped with heavily modified weapons in attack heat and reduced weight.

Beware of the units right arm linear rifle.

Highly mobile attack maneuvers are advised. "

" ED WATCH OUT DUDE! "

* KABLAM *

Just as Ed was about to activate his over boost, an explosion was heard just outside the AC 31-2 Garage doors.

A black AC forced it's way from the heavens and landed with a thunderous crash in front of E.J., stopping him in his tracks.

"Whoa dude what the hell? Where were you just now? "

" Doesn't matter we gotta track down that bastard rogue AC that robbed me of my documents. I found out it was an unknown raven placed number 1 in the Virtual Mission and Virtual Arena rankings. And he was the only one who was near New Mirage HQ. "

" Alright let's get the hell out of here Dan and get that bastard so we can get those documents back! "

Ed turned his AC towards a neon green heavyweight AC that came out of the crumbling garage.

" AC LimeDream detected.

Pilot: Anna Song

Status: Friendly "

" I'm coming with you two guys! I have back up from HQ( New Mirage ) on the way. It's Raven Battalion Sky Division 3. "

" Sweet Anna's here too Ed?," said Dan " Alright guys we gotta haul ass. That rogue AC is getting away and FAST. "

But before they could move away from the garage in time, two abnormal ACs colored in black and dark purple armed with high powered laser rifle and back mounted cannons armed in hand, dropped from the gray skies above the trio.

" Don't even think about going after HIM." said a female pilot in the dark purple AC.

" We are too powerful for you to take down. Even with a KRSW laser rifle you wouldn't be able to scratch our AP! " exclaimed scruffy male voice in the black AC.

Suddenly, a black and blue AC that resembled an Armored Core from the massive suicide weapons era approached Ed, Anna, and Daniel. It stopped in it's tracks right in front of Daniel.

" God damn you...", uttered Daniel as he stares down the mysterious AC in front of him "Where are my documents? I know you took them so fork 'em over NOW! "

The mysterious AC pointed upward with it's blackened linear rifle.

" ... R-r-raven... "

" Screw this guys! " shouted Anna as she attempted to fire on the purple AC with her WR98L, the purple ACs pilot reacted quickly and used her quick boost extension to turn around behind Anna and cut off her right arm, preventing her from using her 98L in the process.

" Ahhhhhhhhhh!!! " as Anna let out a loud scream as her arm was somehow affected by the cut. Her AC kneel to the ground as the shock from the slice of the purple ACs LB3 laser blade.

" Didn't I tell you not to try anything?"

" You bitch! How dare you harm Anna! " yelled Ed. He tried to move, but with the intimidating AC with the very powerful arm mounted LX/2 laser cannon he didn't want to risk being in the same position as Anna.

Daniel edged forward hoping to get closer to the enigmatic figure that was the black and blue AC, but was foiled thanks to the two ACs guarding it.

" I want to know where you hid my documents for the prototype. Why won't you tell me?? "

" ...In...time..R-r-raven...the next..time we...meet is when you'll receive your... "

* Whoop Whoop Whoop Whoop *

The sound of chopper blades and screeching jet planes in the sky behind the three Ravens was a sound from the heavens from their position.

" This is Raven Battalion Sky Division 3 we've arrived at the HZ." said one of the fighter pilots.

" This is Commander Reynolds of Sky Division 3 we have a visual on the target. " said the commander.

" Sir there are three unknown targets down by the fuel tanks. Should we give chase Sir? "

"....Raven...We'll meet...again..." with that communications went static and the mysterious Raven flew away, along with the other two strange ACs, out of the area.

" Squad, the enemy units are getting away! Let's chase 'em down! HOOWAAAAHH!!!! " as Sky Division 3 yelled out their battle cry, Anna, E.J., & Daniel followed suit behind the Raven Battalion into the gray skies above.