Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was exceptionally rare for all the Vespers to gather in one place, but major Arquebus operations often saw the involvement of three or four Vespers in some capacity. Operation Wallclimber certainly qualified as a major Arquebus operation; maybe even the largest to happen on Rubicon so far.

Hence, why V.VI Maeterlinck was currently hanging back from the battlefield and watching as V.IV Rusty and a promising independent merc tore through the Wall.

She’d been watching the battle against the Juggernaut through proverbial binoculars for the past twenty minutes. Three squads of Arquebus MTs had been advancing slowly for the past eighteen minutes or so, slugging it out against entrenched RLF forces, and had been taking heavy casualties. She’d been tempted to engage, against orders, but had tempered herself and waited for the independent to make an appearance.

It had taken the independent two minutes to break the stalemate, wipe out two squads of MTs, and destroy two sizable gatling cannons that had carved apart two entire squads of MTs. That was fast even by Freud’s standards.

She played with the syllables of the independent’s name in her mouth. Raven. The callsign fascinated her. She and Rusty had been discussing it ever since Snail changed the assault roster–apparently, on Rubicon, ravens were seen as symbols of resolve and integrity. Maeterlinck wasn’t so sure. She saw it as a symbol of freedom; after all, what was more free than a bird in flight?

A flash of red glinted on the left side of her vision and her sight snapped to it. Raven was flying, dodging through a maelstrom of fire, missiles flashing away from their build as they closed in, outrunning a tetrapod’s targeting, and scattered explosives like a ring of fire around themselves. Maeterlinck took the opportunity to scan the mech further.

Fuschia paint with white highlights. Coral flames jetted out from the boosters as the machine zipped and dodged, unloading a barrage of needle rounds from above the tetrapod like some vengeful angel striking downwards. Maeterlinck swore she saw lightning; a scattering of explosions later and the tetrapod sparked, then detonated.

Good riddance to bad machinery, Maeterlinck mused. The Rubiconians could try all they wanted, but BAWS gear would never match a good AC. The other part of her mind hummed happily about the skill on display. Raven would make a good Vesper, if they joined.

Her visor hummed as she zoomed out slightly, watching as Raven climbed skywards towards an opening in the Wall. They would be joining with Rusty to take on the Juggernaut. Maeterlinck used the time to muse on what gear Raven was using.

She hadn’t gotten a clear view, but from what she’d seen, Raven’s mech was angular, bulky–no smooth curves like with Arquebus tech. That ruled out Arquebus and the Advanced Development Division. It was bipedal–so probably not Schneider. It moved like a streak of red lightning, which made Maeterlinck rule out BAWS and Balam, which just left Elcano… but even then, Elcano didn’t make anything that looked quite like Raven’s AC. It took Maeterlinck a moment to recall the name from the briefing. 

ONNA-MUSHA. A term for a woman who served as a samurai thousands of years ago. Inside her control pod, Maeterlinck pressed a hand to her heart. It gave her fleeting hope, to see that name. Maybe there was another woman in an AC that she wasn’t contractually obligated to murder.

As much as she loved Arquebus, the company was a sausage party. It felt intentional, too. Snail, the brains behind the Vespers, just loved passing over female applicants and had twice recommended that if she couldn’t handle taking risks on the battlefield she should, in his words, “consider a career in Human Resources instead of the Vespers.” She’d never brought it up again, but she didn’t let that feeling of resentment go, either.

Fucking prick.

Was that why Snail was such an ass to Raven? Because she was, well, she?

Maeterlinck didn’t like how that was a non-zero chance. She really did need to look into different companies, but Balam had no women in the Redguns, Furlong didn’t have a foothold on Rubicon, and Arquebus was paying for her AC, her surgeries, and her family’s safety.

She sighed. No chance of leaving. Just need to pray I can retire.

A glint of orange and blue; Rusty was arriving in front of the Juggernaut, and there was Raven, in coral-red and sunset pink. She could hear V.IV over the long-range comms.

“Ready to climb the Wall?”

Something in Maeterlinck cried, knowing that this was the last she would ever see of Raven and her beautiful sunset-pink AC. She kept watching. If there was one thing she could do, it was remember Raven and how she danced.

That was it. That was what stood out to Maeterlinck. Raven didn’t seem to fight so much as dance.  Heavy cannons and bullets passed by her, never quite making contact but usually close, like she was made of wind. She pirouetted around the Juggernaut as Rusty distracted it, hammering away, carving through layers of metal.

Beside Maeterlinck, V.II Snail shifted. “And now we begin Phase 2 of the plan. V.VI, this is V.II. Withdraw and let the mutt die.”

“This is V.IV… understood.” Rusty sounded confident as ever, but Maeterlinck picked up on the hint of guilt in his tone. STEEL HAZE darted away, leaving ONNA-MUSHA alone to take on something four times as tall and many times heavier.

Raven didn’t even seem to notice. She just kept dancing, jumping and twirling, staying above the machine to keep hammering away from a position that the armour didn’t cover. Huh. Pretty smart move, actually.

Something warm and forbidden flared inside Maeterlinck. Instinctually, she moved to suppress it–and then decided to give in and hope that Raven would actually manage to climb the Wall. Even as the artillery platform tried to dodge away and escape the black bird circling above it, Raven remained, moving with the beast like her AC was riding it.

“What do we do if Raven slays the Juggernaut?” she idly asked, admiring the skill on display.

“Be serious, Maeterlinck,” Snail replied with a sneer that Maeterlinck couldn’t help but take a little bit personally. “That mutt will die, just like Balam’s dogs.”

Maeterlinck bit her tongue but let her mind run free. Fuck you, Snail.

“Are we watching the same battle, Snail?” Freud replied with a gentle, but derisive, laugh. “That ‘mutt’ is in top form. They may well become the Wallclimber.”

“That mutt’s top form is hardly impressive. Even Maeterlinck could do better.”

Now that was just rude. Fuck you, too.

“The Juggernaut can’t seem to get a hit on Raven,” Maeterlinck observed. Snail sneered.

“He’ll make a mistake.”

Another barrage of fire, and Maeterlinck chose to look sideways at Snail.

“Are you sure?”

Another barrage of explosions, and Raven began to withdraw as the Juggernaut detonated in a lightshow comparable to that of an artillery barrage.

Maeterlinck smiled as she watched. She could feel Snail glowering beside her.

“Handler Walter to V.VII Snail. My hound delivered, as promised.”

“Yes, yes. Compensation will be delivered.” Maeterlinck derived some small satisfaction from the seething resentment and anger in Snail’s voice, then launched forwards to begin securing the rest of the Wall.