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Drich's Demesne

Drich's Demesne

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 9.1

9.1

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That voice...

I’m the one that Carla calls ‘the annoyance’, yes.” She had called me that to my face and I was oddly proud of the title. “I trust I don’t need any more an introduction that that?

Wal...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 9.0

9.0

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I told Flatwell first, of course. Of everybody in the RLF, he more than anyone was the person who could properly make use of the information.

When he’d gotten to the combat footage, he’d closed his eyes, breathed deeply, and then released a very emph...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 8.9

8.9

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Despite how the last five or so years had felt like they were just flying by, it was only now that I felt like I didn’t have enough time.

A little ridiculous, to be honest. I was, if anything, overprepared by now. Yet, knowi...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 8.8

8.8

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By the time that Walter came back with the next set of Hounds, Carla had their new ACs ready to go. 618, 619, and 620 joined with 617, all of them receiving LUNCH models. It was a decent upgrade for them, especially since Carla had been kind enough to provide ...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 8.7

8.7

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January 1, 47 years post Fires of Ibis

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This year started the same way that the last year ended.

Balam and Arquebus went to war with each other, both groups attempting to sabotage the other. The RLF stayed holed up in thei...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 8.6

8.6

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Time passed quickly enough.

Carla filled Walter in on the events that happened. Walter wasn’t exactly pleased, since he could recognize a complication to the plan when he saw one, but he also recognized that he couldn’t do anything about it at the mo...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 8.5

8.5

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I waited only a few moments to respond, a timeframe to ensure that the signal and response took long enough that they wouldn’t know how close to the Grid I actually was.

By the time I started responding, however, Carla was already dumping...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 8.4

8.4

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Okay, so it turns out that raiding the PCA might be harder than we thought.” Carla spoke, and if I’d had a head, I would have shaken it.

I’ve been watching them for several days now, and I know damned well that the only reason Carla has...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 8.3

8.3

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If not for the fact that she was travelling in a group, Carla would have been a tricky bitch to keep track of. I was honestly kind of impressed with how good she was at going to ground. She was usually so... loud.

Carla’s group was fairly smal...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 8.2

8.2

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Walter and Carla.

A real blast from the past, those two. Sure, I’ve thought about them every now and then over the years, but that’s mostly in the context of other matters, not... the two people themselves.

I knew them. I...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 8.1

8.1

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The first corporate invasion of RLF territory came before the month was over.

It was not, as one might suspect, a particularly big invasion.. No, it had been a rather subtle affair, insofar as giant robots shooting the shit out of each othe...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 8.0

8.0

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In the aftermath of the whole thing, the PCA was, not to put too fine a point on it, mad.

Like, extremely, earth-shatteringly, unreasonably fuck-ass mad.

PCA troops swarmed along Branch’s trail, desperate to attempt to get their hands on them. Ki...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 7.9

7.9

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May 28, 44 years post Fires of Ibis

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“Isn’t this... bad?” Dunham asked, his voice confused. “Why are you supporting this? I thought that you had a different plan that was meant to go slower?”

It was a few days be...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 7.8

7.8

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Life continued. Even the new additions didn’t change that. Until the next set of suckers arrived, it stayed relatively quiet, though, and I appreciated that. The RLF had time to fix themselves up. I scheduled a decent amount of R&R for the Firekeepers, l...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 7.7

7.7

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Ah, silence. Absolutely no response whatsoever- for several seconds, too!

Either I had touched a nerve, or ALLMIND was putting on quite the show in terms of her reaction.

It makes sense, really.” I continued, after a bit. “Despi...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 7.6

7.6

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It only took Flatwell a few days to finish setting things up on his side of things. In those few days, Marzan announced that it was pulling out, now that its army had seemingly vanished into the ether for no discernable reason. 

Arkvidavat actually ...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 7.5

7.5

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I had the WEEVIL ping Raven’s AC, alerting them to its presence before the WEEVIL moved to shift its camo tarp off of its body.

Raven didn’t react aside from turning to face it. I kept my own guns pointed downwards as the WEEVIL stood upright, the C-...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 7.4

7.4

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One thing you don’t realize about combat between two or more Armored Cores is that it is deceptively quick.

For all the power that those warmachines possessed, they were not equally durable. Speed was the best defense that there had ever ...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 7.3

7.3

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Captain?!

Oh man

That guy fucked up. 

Raven’s Pulse Blade had cut clean through the Core/Leg connection joint. That was a pretty fucking thin target at that angle and with that little warnin...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 7.2

7.2

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The SEA SPIDER was quick to skedaddle after the battle was over. The AC waited about thirty seconds before it elected to follow, though it chose to hang back at a fairly large distance, well outside of engagement range. 

Either stupidity, or a great...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 7.1

7.1

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The plan was enacted only a few days later. I had the front row seats to both of their forces being marshalled, my Antigens keeping an eye on the situation.

The mercs were unfortunately more difficult to track. Both myself and the RLF had a scattershot o...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 7.0

7.0

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Raven.

A very familiar name to anybody who played the Armored Core series. You played as a Raven, the Raven, in every game other than AC 4 and For Answer. A myth, a legend, the final action of the battlefield.

B...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 6.9

6.9

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March 2, 38 years post Fires of IBIS.

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I might have considered myself a prophet if I wasn’t aware of just how much history liked to rhyme. ‘The next few years would be trying ones’, I said. This was pretty fucking obvious....

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 6.8

6.8

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“I thought you said you were going on a scouting mission.” Freddie spoke, his confusion evident in his voice.

“I did say that. And I did go on the scouting mission.”

“Flatwell...” Dolmayan, more diplomatic than Freddie, paused for a mom...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 6.7

6.7

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- and that’s the short of it.” I finished explaining.

We were in rare form, today. Every AC Pilot of the RLF was, for once, not scattered to the winds, leaving us all free to have a meeting.

The room was a comfortable o...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 6.6

6.6

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Well. Isn’t that interesting?

After literal years of effectively waging a shadow war against each other, now ALLMIND wants to talk.

Clearly, she’d started to catch on to certain things. ‘Non-Human Consciousness’... An odd choice of wording,...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 6.5

6.5

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The anniversary of the day that the Fires of Ibis had started passed with the same quiet melancholy as it had for the past three decades. The two weeks until the end of the year afterwards were known as the ‘Time of Fire’ to most of Rubicon’s citizenry; ...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 6.4

6.4

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“All settled in, I hope?” Flatwell asked.

Naturally.”

Ayre’s addition to the family occurred the same way that most of my rescued children had. 

It started slowly, at first. She was a being who had never had a...

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 6.3

6.3

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BALTEUS retreated, boosting backwards in order to gain a bit of distance from the Firekeepers. Even as it did so, I saw its rails deploy, missiles readying once again.

They launched a moment later, another barrage providing a moment of cover for BALTEUS....

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Embers After Flames, Chapter 6.2

6.2

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The blinding light had barely begun to dissipate into flecks of red and orange before the Firekeepers reached the Watchpoint, trailing so closely behind the Overboost Units. Crimson sparked in the air as the unleashed Coral was agitated.

It gave me a per...

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