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The story that began its life as a fan-fiction (Armored Core:
Machine Legacy) eventually outgrew the limitations imposed
on it by its video game origins. The plot you see outlined here,
collectively referred to as Frame, is the sum of all the
planning I did while writing my first major work. Even though the
novel was abandoned before its completion, there was more than
enough to build an egrossing story. I may come back to it some
day; until then, enjoy this.
Note that, even though I didn't have one of those
ridiculous science-fiction timelines, with some derivative
abbreviation, I will give some sense of the time scale of the plot
by referring to how many years before or after the listed events
occurred in relation to the AC:ML novel.
-
-1000 – -50
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At some point in the very distant past, a great catastrophe
left the human race in danger of extinction. The original idea,
taken from the plot of the first Armored Core video game,
was that a nuclear war had occurred some time around fifty years
before the events of the game. I stuck with this idea while my
story remained under the shadow of the video game, but I decided
to change it some time later.
- Original version
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Scientific advancements have caused humanity to split into
three factions: the geneticists, the machinists, and the
neutrals. The former two groups are mainly comprised of
researchers; the latter group contains the majority of people.
The geneticists try to come to power by enchancing human
beings through manipulation of their DNA. This process takes
time to test and perfect. The machinists take an easier route,
which is the augmentation of the human mind and body through
the addition of computer and machine parts. Both factions
vy for dominance, but they reach a stalemate. Either side
launches a project that tries to understand the unusual
aspects of the other, with the ultimate aim of total control
over the opposing group. The machinists attempt to build an
artificial intelligence that will understand organic beings
well enough to foresee and counter their every move; after
mixed results, they give rise to the entity they call
Hustler One. The geneticists, on the other hand,
take a longer-term approach that will culminate through
generations of careful breeding. With a highly-refined
seed group of quite a few individuals, they set their sights
on producing a human being with a strong affinity for
controlling machines. Something goes wrong with the
Hustler One intelligence that causes it to sympathize
with human beings. It sees that, far in the future, a
union between it and the final result of the geneticists'
program will create a being perfectly suited for guiding
humanity to a prosperous destiny. With this in mind, it
supplies the neutral population with nuclear weapons; inspired
by a fear of the control that would come from either faction,
they strike against both, destroying the majority of their
assets. Hustler One establishes an isolated base of operations
and the genetecist project goes into hiding with the rest of
the terrorized population. Humanity is charged with the task
of rebuilding itself.
- Revised version
-
As portrayed in the events of my short story
"Innovation,"
humankind's technology had advanced far enough to let it
create artificial intelligence, which eventually destroyed its
creators. After some centuries of the reign of machines, it is
deemed necessary to re-create Homo sapiens so that
the machines might harness the species' one unique feature,
genius, to create faster-than-light travel. The
re-introduction of humanity causes a corruption in all but one
robot. This robot, who was against the choice to bring human
beings back from extinction, went into exile before the
disease infiltrated the minds of the other machines. Mankind
solves the riddle for faster-than-light space travel, but even
as the machines abandon man on a wrecked Earth and travel to
Alpha Centauri, they are overcome by the disease and destroy
themselves. Alpha, the driving mind behind the discovery, is
left to lead his people, made to believe they are all just a
sub-race of their robot creators. After several years of harsh
life as nomads, Alpha discovers the vault that H-001 occupied
during his exile. H-001 is still there, and is upset at being
disturbed, especially by the dirty animals he so condemned
years before. In an angry conversation with Alpha, H-001
reveals truth behind humanity: that they, in fact, created
machines centuries before. Alpha goes mad with this new
knowledge and flees from a bitter H-001. However, he returns
to the siteo n numerous occasions, each time inspiring more
and more pity on the part of H-001. This is the only thing
that saves H-001 from the disease that killed the rest of his
people. Finally, the two strike a bargain: H-001 will provide
the human tribes with guidance in order to rebuild the world
if Alpha will pledge his heirs to be the instruments of
H-001's plans. After this, Alpha disappears, never to be seen
again.
- -50 &ndash -10
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Either version led through the subtle control of humankind at the
hands of Hustler One. After decades or centuries spent in
darkness, H-1 brings Corporations into the scheme, using them
as a way to advance knowledge while keeping the masses under
control. Large-scale machines come to be, at first as the Muscle
Tracer and later as the Armored Core. H-1 remains in the
background, searching always for the
final product of the previous generations—that is to say,
the last child born to the geneticists' breeding project or the
final descendant of Alpha. In order to draw this master of
machines, who most likely does not know of his heritages, into
the open, Hustler One establishes a group of people whose
specialty is controlling machines: the group of Armored Core
pilots called Ravens.
- -10 – -5
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The events described in the Genesis
background document come to pass.
- -5 – 0
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The events described in the Alpha background
document come to pass.
- 0 (
Armored Core: Machine Legacy)
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The Human Plus rise, a conjunction of the human body and the lost
technology remembered only by Hustler One. It is
through the medium of half-machine, half-man that H-1 decides he
will have the most success in contacting Alpha. The events of
AC:ML occur, the only complete part of which ends with
Alpha's capture. Sumika takes command of the Ravens and begins
plans for a final assault on the Human Plus. Rage refuses to give
up on his friend and searches for Alpha, following any lead he can
find. Meanwhile, Alpha resists the effect of the first chip
implanted in his brain and begins to corrupt the Human Plus from
the inside. He discovers the complete depth of his affinity for
machines and takes advantage of this new knowledge. Genesis, aware
of the internal and external pressures on his cult, recruits more
disciples from the depths of the city under the Ravens' Nest.
Spies bring reports, while the assassinations of key Ravens help
even the numerical odds against the Human Plus. Sumika leads the
final charge on the desert plain that lies around the Nest; the
Human Plus meet her in battle. Rage stumbles upon Alpha's location
through keen obervation of the origin of the Human Plus assault.
He enters the base unhindered, but finds Genesis there, torturing
Alpha. He engages Genesis in a mostly futile fight. Sumika's army
experiences difficulties from the Human Plus and it appears that
the Ravens will soon be destroyed. Genesis puts the full load of
enhancement chips into Alpha's brain, hoping that this will allow
him to establish mental domination over his captive. Instead,
Alpha uses the link to destroy Genesis utterly, then to spread
enough mental interference among the Human Plus soldiers for
Sumika to achieve victory over them. Rage takes Alpha from the
wreckage of the base. The Ravens appear to have survived the
war against the Human Plus.
- 1 – 5
-
Alpha, rehabilitated from his experiences with the Human Plus,
enjoys a year of happiness with Sumika. The Ravens, their ranks
thinned out from numerous losses, are tightly unified once again.
They begin to take sides in conflicts between Corporations,
instead of blindly following their orders. Sumika remains their
leader, the person to whom the Ravens go for guidance. After the
first year of this change, Alpha's implants re-activate and he
receives odd whispers in his mind. Fearing for his sanity, he does
everything he can to block these messages, and when this fails, he
traces the origin of the transmissions. At their source, he finds
Hustler One's primary core. Hustler One recounts his—and
Alpha's—history, ending with a choice: Alpha can fulfill his
destiny or continue to live a normal life. Alpha returns to the
Nest, unable to make a decision. He spends more time with his
love, Sumika, but he sees that the world needs to change. He
leaves the Ravens and seeks Hustler One once again. Upon their
meeting, Hustler One incorporates Alpha's being into his core,
preserving his body at the center, and the two merge into a being
later called the Controller. Sumika senses that Alpha has left
for some unknown purpose and undergoes cryogenic statis, that she
might be awakened if Alpha ever returns. Rage spearheads the
Ravens' movement as the world's policy-makers. The Ravens
eventually establish an uneasy balance of power with the
Corporations.
- 5 – 100
-
Following the events of Armored Core 2 and its successors, the
human race eventually re-establishes space travel within the solar
system. The Controller secretly oversees the fledgling
interplanetary government. After almost a century of its rule, the
Controller determines that its reign is over, and allows the
Ravens to destroy what they believe is its essence. Huster One
reverses its merge with Alpha, and the two go their separate ways;
Huster One builds an interstellar vessel, complete with the
technology originally made possible by Alpha's first ancestor,
and leaves to find his missing people. Alpha travels the Earth
once again. He knows of Sumika's stasis, but can't find her
resting place. He contacts Rage's descendants and finally revives
Sumika. The two live together until their death.
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