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<code> _{--<load 04-19-0084 operations record>--} OWL> Access approved to operator ic_civ_jkorsa. Purpose summary: "Response to public revolt" is validated. OWL> Enter additional information on following lines. Natural language will be processed - clarification will be requested on further input. ic_civ_jkorsa> There's a riot breaking out in the 4th ward, owing to council-approved renovation of housing districts. Criminal activity is increasing, and there may be critical damage to city infrastructure. We're approving the use of connecting Controller Terminal OWL to the autonomous defense network for live appraisal of combat testing. OWL> Operation Request: Mobile Weapon Remote Management OWL> Target Location: Isaac City 4th Ward OWL> Additional information processed - disruptions have been located and mapped out. OWL> Clarification requested: Estimated combat strength and mobile weapon models of enemy combatants. ic_civ_jkorsa> The rioters are armed with improvisational weapons and some incendiary devices. There's estimated to be a crowd of about 400 people. OWL> Processing . . . OWL> Database mismatch. Current Armored Core loadout systems possess combat strength far in excess of enemy capabilities. Resource consumption estimations are available for review. ic_civ_jkorsa> Disregard those estimates. Pick whichever arrangement of weapons offers the highest amount of small arms fire. Five or six Armored Cores should be sufficient to get this over with. OWL> Operation parameters complete. Mission plan: Remote operation of six ACs with weapons prioritizing suppressive fire towards highlighted eight blocks of Ward #4. Confirm approval. ic_civ_jkorsa> That looks good to me. Approved. OWL> Connection confirmed to Isaac City autonomous armory. Readying ACs, and charting deployment. . . -- -- -- -- -- >AC Dolls 1-6, record optical feedback to core analysis. Initialize sound input. Deployment of Dolls 1-3 from 4th Ward, North Hangar - complete. Deployment of Dolls 4-6 from 4th Ward, West Hangar - complete. >Begin operation at timer 00:00:00. <00:05:19> Connections to civic infrastructure indicate fire has been set on Avenue 119A. Notice through public service network has advised evacuation of all civilians in the area. <00:08:34> Dolls 1 and 3 have encountered the first signs of dissident activity. 7 young adults moving from door to door. 2 of them have thrown molotov-type weapons at Doll 1. 8mm suppression cannons fired. 2 dissidents downed - remaining 5 fled indoors. <00:09:17> Doll 2, equipped with emergency higher-caliber weaponry, has joined Dolls 1 and 3. <00:10:13> Doll 2 has opened fire on the structure into which dissidents have fled. <00:14:29> Dolls 4 through 6 have taken up stations encircling estimated radius of riot activity. <00:17:51> Doll 5 is en route eastward. Primary uprising center spotted. Size: Estimated 324 targets. Signs indicate grievances with planned demolition of Housing Block XE-3. <00:18:30> Sound input: "You can't tear it down and evict us without any notice!" "Whoever you are in there, get out and face us eye to eye!" <00:19:00> Dolls 4 and 6 have joined Doll 5. <00:19:49> Doll 4 emits warning notice: "Disperse immediately. These units are authorized to open fire." <00:20:03> Sound input: "Disperse where?!" "You can't be authorized for anything like that!" "Get the hell out of here!!" <00:21:19> Dissidents have begun throwing makeshift weapons at Doll 6. <00:22:01> Dolls 4 through 6 begin returning fire. <00:23:17> Initial salvo - 75 incapacitated. Remaining dissidents have begun fleeing. <00:25:21> Second salvo - 62 incapacitated. Pursuing groups estimated to continue holding illicit damaging weaponry. <00:27:16> 21 dissidents located in abandoned building near border with 5th Ward. Doll 5 has planted explosives around the perimeter. <00:28:30> Doll 1 has encountered a larger fleeing group and has opened fire. 43 incapacitated. <00:30:55> Doll 5's demolition operation approved and finalized. No estimated targets still active. <00:32:19> Doll 3 has encountered a single fleeing target, recognized from earlier in riot. <00:33:04> Sound input: "Please! You have to stop this! I...I'm not going to do anything anymore! Please, just let me go!" <00:33:33> Doll 3 has opened fire. <00:35:19> Doll 2 has returned to hangar to save operational costs. Doll 1 and Doll 3 will synchronize with Doll 4. <00:38:45> Scans of perimeter indicate illegal mortar emplacement on rooftop. Doll 5 has moved in to engage and destroy emplacement, manned by 4 dissidents. <00:40:01> Error noted: Doll 3 left unassigned since prior engagement. Re-synchronizing with Doll 1 and Doll 4. <00:42:13> Evacuation complete. No combatant activity detected. Rerouting all ACs to prior hangar positions and concluding operation. >Final operation time: 00:45:58, including emplacement of Armored Cores in hangar docks. >Submission to public defense committee and board of directors approved. >Incoming communication request from d_hblytheford. d_hblytheford> 45 minutes for a revolt this small is a little too long for my liking. Aim for the 30 minute mark if this happens again. OWL> Parameters accepted. Adaptation to operation conditions was suboptimal, owing to calibrating practical use when compared to tightly controlled simulations. d_hblytheford> Don't waste time telling anyone to leave, either. If they haven't obeyed an initial evacuation notice, they've already defied military orders. OWL> Processing. . . OWL> Confirmed. ACs will treat activity in evacuated areas as a threat on sight. d_hblytheford> And encircle the area better. There were still a few dozen unaccounted for. Did they hole up in other houses? Did they flee the area? Automated performance wasn't any better than what you could expect from a manned mission of the same size. I'd figured the whole point of having a Controller terminal take care of it would be the capacity to keep tabs on absolutely every target. Or is this thing's performance not there yet? OWL> Isolated targets entering separate inhabited buildings were deemed as removed from combat, as were isolated targets who had exited the perimeter entirely. d_hblytheford> Can't let that slide. Encirclement should be complete. The more that can hide or escape, the more they can relay intel to others. OWL> Processing . . . OWL> Individual targets shall be prioritized as security threats. d_hblytheford> Other than that, good work. Targeting efficiency was spot-on, very little ammunition was wasted, and there was even the foresight to remove units from combat when they were accurately deemed no longer necessary. d_hblytheford> Eliminate more efficiently, and we'll hopefully fully integrate Controller functions within a few years. The admins have taken long enough. >Eliminate more efficiently. >Eliminate more efficiently. <b>>Eliminate more efficiently. >Eliminate more efficiently. <big>>Eliminate more efficiently eliminate more efficiently eliminate <s>more</s> e<i>ff</i>iciently</big></b> > _{<s>hopefully</s>} </code> -- -- -- -- -- Asciel jolts upright from the concrete floor, a hand at her chest, in the middle of her assigned sleep schedule. Miming overly rapid breathing, she twists this way and that in a panic. Looking for...what? Enemies? Obligations? Ghosts? Nothing but the quiet din of a warehouse she'd holed up in on the outskirts of Tbilisi, and the gentle clapping of her charging cable against the ground. ...Was something like that a "dream"? The very thought was absurd. Every instance of "sleeping" was an exercise in laying blankly and inert, detached from this body's processes, floating adrift and thoughtless but for the sense of hours passing uselessly. Why, over a year later - a "dream" all the sudden? Asciel's hand grasps the plug inset into her lower back - blaming it on a power surge this rickety old shed must've endured. But, knowing she's been stirred at only half of the Alastor's battery, she thinks better of it, instead, curling up on her side - and gazing at her hand. "...even now, I "remember" something like that. Of...of course I do. ...Despite everything, I'm still-" Wouldn't it have been nice, for these very hands to be something clean of spilled blood? Wasn't it a delightful little fantasy? That ridiculous sense of 'chivalry' in abhorring needless bloodshed in a world where it's such a useful means of getting ahead? But if a record like that is still something Asciel carries, then it's proof. Proof that nothing had changed. Absolutely nothing, but that willingness to lie- "If that's all I have, I'm ~taking it for all it's worth!!!" Asciel screams, clenching a fist already soiled, even in this name. Her call echoes off the tall, rust-ridden ceiling. In a fit of frustration - just at looking on this desolate yet still-standing ruin - Asciel untethers herself from the power supply mains, and marches her way towards the nearby Codarl. "It doesn't prove anything, it doesn't prove anything, it doesn't prove ANYTHING!!!" Asciel lies, over and over, rough with the Arm Slave's controls to awaken its sensors and muscle packages. Standing upright and stretching an arm forward, Asciel deploys a high-caliber chain gun, throwing her entire arm into the lever to send it whirring. "Watch. Watch how wasteful I am!!! Watch just what I'll do with such precious yet omnipresent weapons of sin! Half of you wretched souls ran to Mars, but I'll make sure you can hear my song of desolation from there!!" Bullet after bullet flew across the warehouse's girders and supports, rending holes in the walls, shattering glass skylights, crumpling I-beams. Panels of corrugated steel fell from the walls and ceiling, crashing down around Asciel in a rhythmic cacophony of demolition. Moonlight shone down - the branches of surrounding trees swayed in the evening wind where before there was only artificial stagnation. "Hah. Don't you dare...make me ~regret it! Destroying my existence's purposes with my own hands, and doing so as a fool who'd wish to kill the world while leaving a human hair unharmed! I don't care if I have to tear down every last wall of stone and iron bit by bit, just like this! There's no more comedic an end to weapons designed to take lives, than to waste them all destroying what was never alive to begin with! Hah. Hah!!" The crescendo of demolition was reached just then - as the ceiling collapsed around Asciel's Arm Slave, burying her in a volume of rubble that'd kill the living. Instead, with a spread of arms and a clambering above the thorns of steel, Asciel pulls her Codarl to the top of the rubble pile, and unfurls the hatch. Atop the Codarl's head, the idol perches, a hand reaching up to the waning moon above, the world silent but for the rustling of neighboring trees encircling this now ruined cage. "...I really didn't hesitate at all when someone begged for their life, huh? ...What a horrifying thing you made, and cursed me to be..."