Part 3: Fuck the Isaac City Guard
Continuing from where we left off, we just received a new AC part as compensation for destroying a Chrome gun emplacement because Murakumo hates those assholes.
The part in question is a pair of legs, this one in particular having the fastest movement speed of all the legs (at least bipedal ones). It’s nice, but not enough weight capacity to hold our top load, so we’ll sell it for forty-four grand.
And now that we have a good chunk of money, we’ll sell our current boosters which are still a holdover from the starting build, and get ourselves a new one. The B-VR-33 will do.
With that upgrade done, let’s go to the next mission, Worker Robot Removal.
A problem occurred in the No. 7 power plant of Isaac City. Due to security system trouble, the worker robots are out of control.
Most of the robots have already been captured or destroyed, but some of them have entered the grounds of the power plant.
Luckily, no major accident has occurred so far, but we cannot leave the situation as is. Because of the location, ordinary measures are useless.
This is where we need your help. We want you to destroy all of the robots within the power plant, but do not damage the generators or you risk causing a major explosion.
If you destroy a generator, we will deduct compensation for the damages from your pay. The worker robots have no attack capability at all, but you must move cautiously.
If you go into this mission with the right tools, either energy weapons like we have or a blade equipped, this mission can be easily completed while getting the full reward with no expenses. Though I am curious as to what these “ordinary measures” are that prevent Murakumo from gathering these last few robots but are okay for us. I almost would think the Isaac City Guard are up to the task, but that’s probably giving them too much credit.
Also a minor note, this is the first mission where a client actually gives us part of the pay in advance. While I don’t really do it, when selecting a mission you have the option of immediately starting it or not. You’re locked into the mission once you’ve accepted it, but you can do some last minute customization on your AC if you need to.
Worker Robot Removal
These little things are called Techbots (name coming from the Revolution disc from AC Nexus), and we have to destroy all of them without hitting the generators. Sometimes however they’ll be positioned too close to a generator and missing a shot slightly would be devastating. However, if you run up in front of them they will proceed to back up and away in the direction you’re facing them. Use this to corral them away from the generators if you need room to be sure you won’t fuck up. Not a whole lot of exciting stuff in this mission, but what can you do?
See, what I tell you? Easy money.
Back to the mission select screen, that title looks familiar. Didn’t we already deal with some squatters?
Remnants of the squatters who occupied the abandoned factory on the east side of the City have reappeared.
They have brought together 12 MTs from somewhere, and have again amassed inside the factory.
Clamoring for us to bring out the guys who hurt them before, they are on a rampage. Our guard weaponry is useless. Any Raven will do, just do something.
Oh, I’ll do something alright.
Eliminate Squatters (2)
So right off the bat, the enemies in this level are double from before, and are much more aggressive. There are two WR750Rs and ten Bishops on this level, and none of them last long against my energy weapon.
Hope you learned your lesson this time, shitheads.
Hmm, took a lot more damage there than in previous missions. Things are indeed becoming more challenging.
We receive some new email messages, one from the client, and the other from you know who.
We are troubled to find that the squatters’ weapons were likely supplied through the involvement of the terrorist group “Imminent Storm”.
We really should perform a full-scale investigation, but they hold some pretty bad company, if you get my drift.
Unless we have direct evidence of wrongdoing, we cannot get involved.
Well, we have our reasons.
Even though we are called the “Guard”, we are really mere cogs in the clockwork of business.
We don’t want to do anything to wring our own necks. Unfortunately, that seems to be all we can do.
We are looking forward to working with you in the future.
You know, I can kinda respect the Zam City Guard for being so forth coming with how shitty their predicament is. They know the higher ups are the real ones with authority and control. Let’s see what our other message is about.
Although Chrome had held authority over this area, in recent years Murakumo has turned the tables so that most of the redevelopment projects have been led by Murakumo.
It is not hard to imagine that these circumstances are involved in the recent events.
I’ll be in touch.
Basically, even if the group involved isn’t a megacorp, it’ll still have some sort of backing or support from someone. Chrome and Murakumo are very much involved in every conflict going on right now.
Alright, next task on the list, Stop Terrorist Threat.
We have managed to obtain vital information on the terrorist group “Imminent Storm”. The scum plan to hide inside the city sewers and build their headquarters there.
“Imminent Storm” has perpetrated many terrorist acts on Isaac City in the past, and the Guard has suffered bitter defeats. We will never let them build their headquarters.
Yet we hesitate to act with only our weaponry. This is why we have asked the Ravens for help. Already several Guards have gone ahead but it is too dangerous for them alone.
Your operation has two objectives: protect the Guard detachment and destroy the terrorist leader. We will deduct 1000 C from your pay for each Guard killed.
Raven, we are counting on you.
I can only hope to god these assholes don’t get in the way.
Just so you know which color MTs are which, the tan bishops are the enemies we’ve been fighting for a while, the blue Guard Walkers are used by the City Guard, and the red bishop is the leader of the enemy group. At least the difference in color is simple enough.
Stop Terrorist Threat
Now, because of this game’s age, the AI for the friendly units is pretty poor to be expected. Let’s just hope I get there before anything hap-
oh, FOR FUCKS SAKE!
DIE!!
Well, there goes a thousand credits from my pay. Thanks for screwing it up, asshole.
So yeah, this mission area is pretty big, and while it isn’t required to destroy all the mooks, you get a 500 credit bonus for each one killed, which I guess is a nice way to make up for your allies incompetence and getting themselves killed. There are 18 regular bishops to kill, and that gives a total of 9000 additional credits for this mission.
So this is our target here. I take quite a few hits from this guy, but I dish out way more of my own right at him.
Luckily enough, we actually made more money that the initial reward thanks to eliminating all 18 bishops prior to the leader. That said though, fuck the Isaac City Guard.
OK, next mission, Rescue Survey Team.
We want you to break into an old military facility remaining above ground to the southwest of Isaac City.
This facility has been completely abandoned, but we have reason to believe it had been used as a testing ground for prototype weapons prior to the Great Destruction.
If any of the Companies get wind of this, a fight for this facility is inevitable. We immediately sent a survey team to find out the truth but they ran into trouble.
A gate within the facility suddenly closed and scrapped security MTs began operating. After barely making it back to the 1st floor, the team is stranded behind the locked gate.
The security MTs have been repulsed for now, but we don’t know how long this will last. We want you to rescue the team ASAP.
We now have a new client, and it’s a simple rescue operation. The facility is pretty expansive, but it’s not that hard to get around.
Rescue Survey Team
Now, this mission has a fuck ton of MTs, about 76 in total. These Crusaders as they’re called have high energy defenses, so our energy weapon isn’t as effective. With 76 of these little buggers crawling about, what are we gonna do? It’s simple.
Just run. That’s it, really. Trying to kill these things with what we got isn’t worth it.
Jump and dodge everything that comes your way until you reach the panel controlling the door that has trapped the survey team. Destroy it and the mission is over.
So we only came out of that mission with a little over 20k, but we’re pretty much swimming in credits at this point in the game, so it’s all good.
After rescuing the survey team, we got some new mail in our inbox. Two messages this time.
Professing the goal of reclaiming the above-ground environment, the committee has some of the most prominent scientists in the world as its members.
However, there are many questions in regard to its true nature. There are rumors that it is actually an organization with some other purpose.
I’ll be in touch.
I honestly wonder if there are any corporations or factions in the Armored Core universe that are exactly as they seem and don’t have some ulterior motive. R’s messages certainly aren’t doing them any favors. Let’s look at the next mail we got.
- LN-3001
Heavily armored humanoid legs with a high load capacity. Poor speed. 52200 C
- LN-D-8000R
Humanoid legs with special anti-energy weapon armor. High load capacity. 49000 C
- LFH-X5X
Four legged type with the maximum AP and load carrying capacity. 82000 C
- LC-MOS-4545
A dreadfully durable monster machine. 59000 C
That second the item, the LN-D-8000R is what I was waiting for. Time to do some shopping…next time.
That’ll be it for now. There are four missions planned for the next update, along with a certain choice that the audience will get to make that determines the missions we will be taking for the latter part of the game.
I’ll be in touch.