~ essay on Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (2023).
Asset Autonomy
Commander: In the world of Armored Core, the pilots of the mechs that wage wars upon exoplanets for their neo-oil are not considered people so much as “assets.” An asset is an item of value, “something useful in an effort to foil or defeat an enemy: such as a piece of military equipment.” Importantly, as assets on a balance sheet ~ every pilot in a war is steadily expended, converted into commensurate revenue, and eventually discarded.
Pilot: But us AC pilots are hardly inert. We have some freedom to choose our overlord; we have the optionality of making our own machine, to maximize our individual play style upon the battlefield. We make the choice on when to boost inside our foe’s defenses; we choose the exact moment to ignite our saber and lop the head of the latest steely warrior we face. We have some autonomy; that is, the ability to choose our own path. In the twitching moment-to-moment of martial mecha combat, we fly where we mayest.
Commander: On the planet Rubicon, where giant robots box with missiles and lasers, every path leads into mortal combat. Within the mega-structures of Rubicon’s surface, sub-surface, and atmosphere, there are a variety of arenas to dance within. It is up to the player to choose their partners and their style. You may begin as Handler Walter’s dog, but you do not have to stay loyal to one master. You may begin with the BU-TT saber, but you do not have to swing it for long.
Pilot: Dash in with a sword or stand back with a rifle. Go vertical and stay there, or tread upon the ground and loud up your shoulders with cannons and railguns. Armored Core lets you mecha your way, in every conceivable way. Armored Core VI features millions of combinations, aesthetically and technologically, in your Core’s build. Play fast or slow, up close and personal with quick boost melee strikes, or rain down dozens of lock-on missiles from afar. Eventually, trade one commander for another ~ or dance for them both, on opposing battlefields, for as long as the money may flow.
Commander Wisdom:
Winning wars is all about maximizing your talent.
And to do so, you must let them dance in their own singular style.
Pilot Poem:
The Armored Core is an asset awaiting its expensing, ever-given the autonomy to choose the path to supernova.
The Armored Core leads the vanguard in the wars between the corporations, the key asset to secure something called “victory.”
The Armored Core remains free to dispatch their foes with the techs of their choice, on binary missions of their overarching discretion.
The Armored Core abides the ultimate success and failure of every venture in this fearless future.
Freelance Atrocities
Commander: The Burning Star System, a once vibrant world transformed into a battleground by a mysterious substance known as “Coral,” serves as the backdrop for a thriving and blood-soaked mercenary ecosystem. Players navigate this treacherous landscape, undertaking missions for various factions vying for control of the region’s resources.
Pilot: In the freelancer’s world, everyone is a potential client. But there is little security in any one of them. You choose your own hours, and yet must constantly respond to the controllers of the work and their every whim. Every asked betrayal and unasked sacrifice comes into play to keep the work. You are the first to go, the last to be paid. The timing of any given task may become mysterious and the conditions for total success are nebulous at best, sometimes ever-changing. Often, us star pilots are sent in against behemoths and bullet-hells, mega-ships and formerly undefeated operators of savage magnificence.
Commander: Good luck.
Pilot: …
Commander: Doubtlessly, in the freelance warrior, there is an especially heinous set of incentives: get paid for killing, fight to the death for our cause, do not flee from defeat, fight with maximum effectiveness no matter to the sanctity of your life or any others. Get your bloody payday, at any cost.
Pilot: They have us mercenary freelancers killing each other for a roundtable of corporate overlords ~ no mercy, pure carnage. Asked to quell the local revolution on Rubicon, you may act as a heavily-armed counter-revolutionary assassin for the corporate plunderers. By the end, you will be asked to hunt down not just rival mercs but former co-workers and old bosses.
Commander: It is a merciless world indeed when Mission Control can ask you to kill your friends and still find you listening. When war is outsourced, fought by faceless cyborg mercs and waged over the resources of a dying planet filled with violent resistors, what becomes of humanity?
Pilot: We AC pilots must come to question our role as constant agents of devastation. But remember: that ask may cost you your payday.
Expendability & Survivalism
Commander: As expendable assets thrown into a brutal ballet of conflict, AC pilots walk a tightrope between pragmatism and idealism. They are cogs in the corporate machine, readily sacrificed for profit and exploited for their combat prowess. Yet, within this existential crucible, a flicker of defiance persists.
Pilot: Perhaps because you are expendable, you increasingly become willing to follow your heart. Nothing to lose. Defect to the Rubicon Liberation Front; fight to defend Ayre and the Coral, free the planet’s inhabitants from this war by ending it yourself at the source. But the harsher realities of fighting the corpo empires also necessitates the continuous improvement of your craft to survive such a chaotic world.
Commander: The nature of your expendability engenders survivalism by synthesizing your experiences into a symbiotic relationship between Man and machine. Your AC’s speed and weapons and defenses become a lifeline in the face of overwhelming odds. The Armored Core, once a mere tool of war, transforms into an extension of the pilot’s will, a shield against the storm of destruction that threatens to consume them. Together, they form an unbreakable bond, forged in the fires of ceaseless combat.
Pilot: Every completed mission, every vanquished foe, every painstaking repair and new cannon loaded adds another layer to the AC pilot’s resilience. The relentless pursuit of each new Rubiconian horizon becomes a driving force, urging them to hone their skills and optimize their metallic avatars for the trials ahead. Each customization and every tactical tweak symbolizes a refusal to succumb to the expendable status thrust upon us.
Commander: Survivalism transforms into a unique form of rebellion. It is not a fight for lofty ideals or societal change but a primal urge to exist in a universe determined to erase them. By becoming the most potent weapon on the battlefield, the AC pilot carves out a path where their value transcends mere corporate utility.
Pilot: But no one cannot exist in a vacuum. AC pilots must always form alliances, even if fleeting, whispering pacts with fellow mercenaries caught in the same violent storm. These bonds, forged in the heart of battle, create pockets of resistance ~ against the corporate empires, against an imminent Death.
Commander: Even as they navigate a callous world, where betrayal is a constant specter and allegiances shift like desert sands, pilots find solace in shared moments of latent humanity. Victories celebrated in hangars amidst the din of repairs. A silent understanding exchanged between comrades before a perilous sortie. Two old friends, now become fresh foes, shooting the shit against the wind of what will soon become one of their tombs. These are testaments to an enduring spirit that refuses to be extinguished.
Pilot: The ability to create, to customize, to improve grants us AC pilots a certain degree of control over fate. It is this relative autonomy, coupled with the unyielding desire to survive, that allows us to transcend an initial designation as expendable assets and carve a path toward a future of our own choosing.
Commander: In the face of annihilation, the will to survive becomes a defiant act; the final resolution of that defiance will come to define just what kind of Core you were armoring all along.
Commander: What kind of Armored Core will you build?
Pilot: What kind of wars will you go on to end, or start?
Thresholds of Transformation 