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Mobile Suit Gundam: Dive Nexus- Nightmare Gateway

Sortie 00 - The Straight-Build Rookie

"Aww... SHIT!" Daren exclaimed as he pulled the back on the controls to barely dodged the barrage of incoming fire. He knew that he was in trouble as the other people that he was with moments before had either been outright destroyed or fled the field. This was Daren's first time piloting a mecha in the Massive Virtual Network Dive game, Gundam Nexus Breaker and up till now he had been having fun.

The young adult had gotten his first VND set a few weeks ago and at first, just hung around the different VRChat rooms. It was a chance encounter that he had met a few people online and had made some quick friends. The following week, they had convinced him to not only buy the GNB game, but also find and build a model kit from the sci-fi anime series Mobile Suit Gundam to use in the game. At first he was skeptical about everything until he saw the mode, a GNX-903VS Brave, in its lifesize glory in the virtual world. Most of the group were rookies and new to not only the game, but the Gundam series in general, so those with a little more experience offered to take them around and teach them what they knew.

Sadly, those in the lead accidentally led everyone into an ambush.

It had happened without warning. The lead mecha was speared through the length of its body by a line of green energy, causing the unit to explode into a fireball a moment later. Another shouted into the com to scatter as he brought his own rifle up only for the rifle to be hit followed by another beam to spear the Mobile Suit through the gut. One of the new rookies had managed to bring his own rifle up and return fire before a spiked ball like mace smashed the head of his mecha and a beam saber sliced him in two.

Daren panicked when his vision was suddenly filled by the red and black head of another mobile suit with twin golden eyes. He had barely ducked under the slash that was meant to separate his upper and lower torso and transformed his unit into flight mode and tried to shoot away from the encounter. When he checked his radar display, he noticed that the rest of his group had ran back to the server gate, leaving him alone to fend off the enemies.

He wasn't sure exactly what he was up against as he was still very new to the world of Gunpla and Gundam and quickly bringing up the assailant machines from his computer had yielded very little to him. One was registered as a Dreissen from the Gundam Unicorn series that was armed with some heavy beam bazooka while the other two were shown as Gundam types. A custom Buster Gundam from a series called MS Gundam Seed and a heavily modified red and black unit from another series named Iron Blooded Orphans, called Barbatos.

The speaker crackled with the laughter of one of the enemy pilots. "Look at this noob! It's nothing but a straight build Union Flag!"

"You idiot." One of the enemy's cohorts said in annoyance. "That's a Brave from the Trailblazer movie. Commander type by the looks of what I caught of it."

"Does it really matter?" The third attacker said.

"Not really." The second one responded. "As long as we get the points, who cares about who or what the enemy has." Daren was taken aback by the comments of those players, him and those of the group were nothing more than a score to them.

"Leave me alone!" Daren shouted at no one in particular. "Why the hell are you even attacking me? I didn't do anything to you!"

"You and your little group had the unfortunate pleasure of getting into our crosshairs, nugget." The third pilot taunted. "So you're nothing more than cannon fodder."

"So be a good little target and blow UP!"

Daren banked the Brave up just in time to dodge a heavy energy attack that just nicked the underside of the lith mobile suit. However it was still enough that his unit took damage and warnings flashed over his monitor that displayed the health of his mecha. He did his best to push the Brave to escape the battle, but two of them were matching his moves with their own. Seemingly dead set on taking him down for whatever reason. A warning appeared on his display and he quickly switched back to mobile suit mode just in time to dodge another energy blast that would have shot him down had kept flying.

"Nugget got some moves." The first enemy pilot said. "Too bad he doesn't have anything else!" He charged Daren, a red beam saber ignited as the enemy slashed at Daren. To his credit, Daren tried to block the attack with his own shield but the saber slashed through the shield as if it was made of butter and took half of his forearm with it. More warnings came up as the computer calculated the damages that the Brave received as the enemy kicked Daren away before he could figure out how to possibly retaliate.Daren barely got control back over his machine when his lock on warning whistled in his ear. He turned his head to see a blocky looking Gundam charging a high powered energy weapon that was attached to its back.

"You're Dead Nugget!" The pilot shouted as he discharged the weapon. Daren froze in a panic and closed his eyes as he waited for the inedible outcome.

"What the HELL!"

Daren opened his eyes to discover that he was still in the simulation's cockpit. At first he thought that maybe he had imagined being attacked, but a quick survey of the interior's amber glow revealed that it wasn't the case. Somehow he had managed to tank a shot that should have gutted him like a fish. Movement on his external monitors drew his attention and he realized that he was surrounded in an yellow orb made up of glowing balls of light.

"When the hell did a Double 00 Brave get Legilis bits???"

"Two o'clock high!" One of the other pilots shouted.

The three mobile suit's heads all turn in the indicated direction and Daren couldn't help but to follow their gaze. At first, he couldn't spot anything in the void of space but that was changed the moment a bright flare of thrusters ignited and charged at the three suits. The mecha was moving so fast that it was hard to visually keep track of, the only way someone could was to follow the yellow streak that the mecha left. It was like someone was drawing a glowing line across the the

Two of them immediately brought their rifles to bare against this new threat while the blocky Gundam snapped the two weapons on its backpack together and aimed at the incoming pilot."Have a taste of my Heavy Buster!" He shouted as the oversize weapon charged itself before releasing a torrent of white hot energy at this new interloper. Everyone watched in amazement as the pilot skillfully dodge the overcharged energy that was directed at them, even going so far as to skirt around the wide radius of the particle shot that was released and used the beam of energy as cover so the others couldn't get a proper lock.

"Where did he go?" One of the pilots asked, the mono eye of the custom Dreissen moved around the crossed shaped head as it searched space for the black mobile suit once the white hot energy beam dissipated.

"I got him with my Heavy Buster." The one boasted from the cockpit of the custom Buster Gundam. "That should teach that interloper not to interfere with other diver's battles!" It was then that his forward view was suddenly filled with an angular head with a blue visor of another mobile suit.

The Buster pilot cried out in shock as the black mobile suit grabbed the Buster's head and bursts of yellow energy lanced through the back of the vital appendage, causing the robotic noggin to explode. The attack was quickly followed up by two slashes from a glowing blue blade and a kick from the black and gold mecha that sent the Buster Gundam tumbling back and separating into four pieces before it exploded in spectacular fashion.

"Shit! KellZon!"

"You'll pay for that!"

The Dreissen fired round after round of green energy as the crimson Barbatos charged the black and gold mobile suit. The Gundam launched two rockets from the pod connected to its backpack as it grabbed the large sword that was attached to a magnetic hard point on the other side. The black suit dodged the high energy blast and raised its shield in time to intercept the missiles. The missiles exploded into a fireball that engulfed the shield, temporarily blinding the black suit as the Barbatos came in and struck with an overhead swing. Using the momentum that it had with blocking the missiles, the black mecha continued to swing the shield up and deflected the sword away, unbalancing the red mobile suit temporarily.

Left forgotten, Daren just watched in awe as his rescuer continued to counter the attacker much to the red Barbatos pilot's frustration. The blue tinted blade that was locked back against the black mobile suit's forearm, swung around to lock in a forward position and was thrusted at the red Barbatos. The pilot did his best to parry the solid blue blade with his own yellow blade, creating a spectacle of sparks that flew from the energized metal on energized metal contact.

Both continued their duel at amazing speed in Daren's eyes, the blades moved so fast that they were a blur to him with multiple sparks appearing to mark the point of impact of each attack. The Barbatos was using a kind of golden long sword that was almost as long as the mecha's body was tall and the pilot was switching between one handed and two handed grips in an attempt to overpower his opponent. Meanwhile, the black and gold mobile suit was using a weapon that Daren had never seen before. The switchblade-like weapon stuck out like it was a part of the mecha's forearm, but would snap backwards against the forearm and fire out a green burst of energy like a pistol or rifle.

Daren was brought out of his musings when he noticed a flair off to his right. He looked and noticed that not only was he forgotten but also the bulky Dreissen. Apparently, the other pilot was tired of being sidelined and was now maneuvering to get a bead on the interloping black mobile suit. The Dreissen got its opportunity when the black mecha side kicked the crimson suit away.

"NO!"

Daren was reacting on instinct and charged the Dreissen as it was lining up its shot at the rescuer's back. He wasn't sure when he thought about it later but he was able to draw one of his GN Beam Sabers as he charged the bulky machine and sliced through the beam bazooka, rendering the weapon useless.

"The Hell!" The Dreissen's pilot shouted in a rage as he threw the now worthless weapon at the Brave.

Daren for his part tried to swipe the junk weapon away only for it to explode a second later. Daren cried out in shock as the explosion rocked the skeletal frame of his mecha, causing his cockpit to go from being illuminated by warning yellow lights to emergency red. He chanced a look at his status display to see that his other arm was now damaged from the bazooka's payload exploding on top of his mecha. Everything from just before the wrist was now scrapped, leaving nothing more than a twisted metal stump from the malfunctioning elbow down.

The lock on warning went off bringing Daren back to his situation, his eyes going wide as time seemed to freeze in the cockpit. Ahead of him he could see that the Dreissin had not only drawn its own beam saber, but was also bringing up its free arm and he was soon staring down the triple barrels that were hidden under the armored cuffs of the bulky mecha.

"Is this it?" Daren asked himself at that moment "I'm going to be blown away as nothing more than a score for three random players?"

Daren could do nothing more than watch as the Dreissin took aim at him, ready to finish the job that the three interlopers had started. He could almost swear that he could see the buildup of purple energy in the barrels when something unexpected happened. The Dreissin began to convulse as yellow tracers rain down from above the mecha's position. The rounds were shredding the bulky mobile suit as if they were passing through butter, tearing up armor and the delicate internal structure of the machine. Daren followed the line of machine gun fire up to find that two more Mobile suits had joined the fray.

He was unsure of the models of the two new arrivals and his computer couldn't identify them, listing them only as Unknown Custom models. The closest thing that the computer could identify them as was a heavily modified Zaku Kai or an equally modified Geara Doga. What was confusing the computer was that both machines had roundish legs that flared out feet and shin armor kind of similar to the Dreissin and had two triangular shoulder pauldrons that stuck up above the mecha's dome heads. One suit was wielding a massive rifle that looked almost as long as the suit was tall, while his companion was wielding two twin barrel gatling guns.

Daren was imagining that the long rifle was barking with large caliber shot every few seconds while the gatlings were releasing steady streams of tracer rounds into the now hapless Dreissin. With the Dreissin looking like it had more in common with a strainer, one of the new suits arced its body up so that it looked like it was falling down and the shoulder pauldron opened up to reveal two lines of missiles inside. Once the covers opened up completely, it released four missiles that left corkscrew trails and finished off the wrecked Dreissin in a blossom of fire.

"Hey, you alright?" One of the pilots of the green suits asked as he came up next to him and placed a hand on Brave's shoulder.

"Huh?" Daren was in a bit of a stupor after witnessing how the two unknown pilots took care of the Dreissin. He shook his head to bring himself back to reality and for the rush that he felt to go down. "Uh yeah... Mostly..." He swallowed hard as something came back to him. "Where's that red mecha?" As if to answer his question, a sudden glow from his left caught his attention. He was just quick enough to see the bloom of the explosion as one of the two mobile suits cooked off.

"Well," A gruff voice called out. "I think that answers that." The other green suit came up next to him and its pinkish-red mono eye rotated around to look at him. "Do you have someplace safe to go to to get repaired? Or are you going to try and log off in that state?"

"Uhh... Just the starting plaza." Daren said sheepishly.

"Pfft... That's no good." The gruff pilot said with a huff. "You might as well log off until tomorrow with how backed up those repair bays can get. Besides, do you have enough Catital to use one of those?"

"Capital?"

"Yeah." The other pilot chimed in. "Capital, as in in game Credits or money. You get them every time you complete a mission or take down an enemy mecha." The pilot was silent for a moment. "And sorry for kill stealing... But it looked like you were about to get blown away."

"I-its okay." Daren said sheepishly. "I couldn't do much in the state my mecha was in anyway. You guys basically saved my tail." The comment made both pilots laugh.

"Ha! Yeah, you really did a number on your mobile suit. Tell me your username so I can white-list ya so you can land and get you repaired."

---

A couple of minutes later Daren found himself approaching a Pegasus Class Assault Carrier (Albion variant) called the Nightingale, he could help but to feel awe of seeing an actual spaceship. Though he had a rude awakening when he had almost crashed his machine into the blue painted hull of the ship and when his mecha touched the deck. As soon as he had made contact his left leg snapped at the knee from previously unknown damage, causing the Brave to lurch forward and nearly face plant into the deck had a net not launched up to catch the heavily damaged mobile suit. NPCs quickly surrounded the damaged Brave and got the unit supported by an overhead crane and hauled it to one of the ship's repair bays.

Once the mobile suit was supported and not at risk of toppling over, Daren had exited the cockpit and floated down to the floor. He watched as the NPCs guided the mecha into a repair bay and got it secured inside the almost tube-like structure. Once situated, multiple points around the mecha started to glow as swirling mass of pixels converged around the damaged sections of the mobile suit as the game repaired and replaced the damaged parts. Meanwhile, multiple NPCs continued to float around the deck and storage areas to simulate the ship's crew of mechanics and engineers in the weightless space to give the feel that the ship was more occupied than it actually was.

It was then that Daren found himself standing on the deck in front of his mecha, marveling at the full size mobile suit before him. He'd always been a sci-fi nut and enjoyed the different sci-fi series that were out there, but to actually be standing on a spaceship and to be able to fly a mecha in space. It made him giddy. Even the danger that he just went through made him excited.

"So a GNX Brave Command Type." A voice said, drawing Daren's attention to a figure that was floating down from one of the catwalks in the hanger. "Looks like a strait-build out of the box with no customizations yet." He said as he landed next to Daren. "Though it looks like care was taken with it."

Daren turned his head to give the person next to him a more popper look. One of the first things he noticed was the fact that this other person was taller than him by at least a head, maybe a little more. He wore a black trench coat that went down below his knees and what looked like a dark gay uniform underneath. But the one thing that was the most attention grabbing, for him at least, was the helmet that was shaped reminiscent of a wolf. The helmet encompased his whole head and had two blue electronic eyes that were staring at the Brave currently in the repair bay.

Before anyone could say anything more, they were soon joined by two others that were walking across the hanger deck towards the two. Daren was stunned when he saw the heads of two gray wolves sticking out of their pilot's jumpsuits.

"Hey kid, are you the pilot of that Brave? Daren... Snow was it?" The one asked as they approached. Daren just nodded for an answer. The taller of the two laughed and slapped a gloved hand on Daren's shoulder. "I got to say you have some guts kid."

"Uh... Thanks?" Daren stuttered out. The larger one gave a hardy laugh again.

"Not many would leave the starting area with a straight build machine." The smaller of the two said as he looked at the Brave. "Not unless you were some kind of nugget rookie that just started playing." Daren hung his head down at that, feeling the shame that the smaller wolf was throwing at him. Seeing Daren's reaction, the large wolf reached over and slapped the smaller one upside the head. "Oww... What the hell was that for Ridge?"

"Ignore my buddy here." Ridge said, looking over at the smaller wolf with a glare. "Ron here tends to shoot things off quick without thinking first. Including his mouth."

"I-it's okay... He was only speaking the truth."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Ron said as he tilted his head to the side.

"I think that you should quit while you're ahead, Ron." The helmeted figure said without turning to look at the two. "Though at this point I think that you have already swallowed your foot quite deep."

"What do you mean?" Ron tilted his head in puzzlement.

"This is my first time playing this." Daren said rather subdued. This prompted Ridge to smack Ron upside the head again.

"Hey! Will you quit that!"

"Only if you shut up."

"There's only one way to shut me up and you know it."

"Enough!" The person dressed in the trench coat barked as he turned his head towards the two wolves. "This is not the time for stupid bickering. We have a guest here and unless you want me to flex my admin muscles then you both will shut your yaps!" Both of the wolf's ears folded tight to their heads before sheepishly looking down.

"Understood sir..."

"Uhm... Yeah... Sorry sir."

"Like little kids..." The mystery man muttered with a shake of his head. "Sorry about them." He said to Daren. "Its like they're real life brothers with the way they go at each other." He then held out a hand to Daren. "I'm Frost Tavor. Pilot of the Nightmare, the black and gold mobile suit and one of the creators of the Midnight Fenrir Guild."

Daren took a moment to process what was just said before reaching out with his own hand. "D-Daren. Daren_Snow."

"Welcome to the Nightingale." Frost said as he shook Daren's hand. He then nodded at the two gray wolves. "These two are RidgeFang and Ronziche, our heavy hitters and the two green Zaku suits that also came to your aid."

"Thank you..." Daren said sheepishly. He couldn't help but to mentally note that he was the smallest one there, with Ronziche being a half a head taller, followed by Frost, then RidgeFang.

"Heh, no problem." Ridge said with a toothy grin. "For being a newbie, I think you did pretty well. It's not often that a nugget can hold their own against a more experienced player. Let alone three of them tag teaming you."

Daren looked down at his hand. "I... I just did what felt natural." He admitted.

"I'd suggest heading back to the starting plaza and looking up a few easy green level solo missions to learn more of the basics." Frost said as he turned to Daren. "Learning the ins and outs of a game from another player is all well and good as you can learn from their mistakes. Usually. Though as you just experienced, you might be led to areas that you're not ready for."

"Thanks..." Daren mumbled. "I... I'll keep it in mind the next time I play. Though after tonight, I might not play any more."

"Hey kid," Ridge said as he placed a large paw on his shoulder. "It's up to you if you want to quit or not, but think about it before you give this game up. From what I've seen, you're a natural pilot. Not just anyone could hold off nor dodge three experienced players that were gunning for you. Especially for their first time piloting."

Daren was silent as he considered Frost and Ridge's words. With what he had gone through, he might of rage quit the game. Heck. If he was being honest, thoughts of quitting the game were at the forefront of his mind. Yet...

"Hey... Uh... Daren right?" Ron started a little sheepishly. Daren looked at the smaller wolf with a nod.

"Yes?"

"So I was just wondering,"Ron reached back and scratched the back of his neck. "Is your helmet a part of the look that you are going for like Frost? Or is there another reason why you're still wearing it?"

"Uhh..." Daren just blinked. With everything that had just happened, he didn't even think about his looks. "No." He finally answered. "It was just part of the flight suit and I wore it."

"So you chose to wear the flight suit for immersion?" Frost mused as he glanced over at their smaller guest.

"Yeah... I guess so."

"Well, why keep wearing it then?" Ron asked, earning himself another smack upside the head. "What? I can't be the only one curious as to how he looks."

"It's alright." Daren mumbled loud enough to be heard.

Daren brought up his player menu and started to go through his inventory and started browsing through to find what he was looking for. Within a few moments he found what he was looking for and tapped a few commands in. As soon as he hit okay, his pilot suit dispersed in a cloud of pixels and was replaced instantly by another outfit. He now stood there, wearing an olive green bomber jacket with a reddish tint lining and a pair of similar colored khakis. Daren turned around to the surprised looks of the two wolves, though Frost's helmet was as stoic as before.

"Is... There something wrong?" Daren asked, feeling a little worried and self conscious.

"Nothing kid." Ridge said. "Just a little surprised." Daren just tilted his head to the side confused, white hair with blue highlights fell in front of his eyes from the motion. On instinct, he just brushed the hair back till he hit one of his triangle ears on the top of his head.

"A Snow Leopard." Frost casually commented, looking over their guest. "Must have taken some doing to get the look right."

"Y-yeah... it did."

Frost looked over at Daren as he stared at his unit, complicating something before speaking up. "You know," Frost started, breaking the silence. "If you ever find yourself looking for a crew or guild, you're more than welcome to join the Midnight Fenrir. Though to warn you, we are more of a Role Playing Guild than the other Guilds."

"Role Playing Guild?" Daren cocked his head as one of his ears spade out in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Normally," Ridge started in an attempt to explain. "In this game world every time you fight you get a set number of points based on the opponent *CPWR that you fight and hopefully defeat. Of course this is also depending on the rules of a particular mission as not all missions have you fighting."

"Those scumbags that attacked you were more or less just looking for an easy score to raise their ranking and get quick capital." Ron commented casually. "It's a cheap, underhanded, but effective way to build your own ranking up quickly so you can get the better stuff in the in-game store faster." Ron looked at the others as they stared at him. The smaller wolf got defensive. "What?... It's the truth! Not like we all didn't think about trying it at some point or another."

"Yeah..." Frost sighed. "You have a point there Ron." The smaller wolf smiled and his tail started to wag. "For a change."

"Hey!..."

"But getting back on topic. Normally when you fight and choose missions it's to boost your ranking. The more and better that you do, the more and better stuff and potential equipment you will have access to. So for the most part, most people are battling and taking missions to increase their ranking."

"However," Frost said, taking over for Ridge. "A few like us like to add a bit of narrative to what we do in-game. It's a bit of extra fun for us that adds some depth to what is otherwise a straightforward battle simulator and world contest of best built gunpla."

"I see..." Daren thought out loud. "And what would I be just now? A wayward speed bump?"

"Pfft. More like a poor rookie that was in over their head during a training exercise and had to be bailed out by the baddest mercenary guild on this side of the asteroid belt." Ron said proudly as he puffed out his chest. His only response was a collection of deadpan stares from everyone else, even the NPCs seem to give him the same stare. "What?..."

"Not everything we do is related to some sort of narrative." Frost stated to draw the attention away from the smaller wolf. "Like helping you out of that ambush, we were just lucky that we were close by and caught the S.O.S. flair that someone sent out. We didn't help because of some plot that we quickly cooked up, but because it was the right thing to do."

"I... Understand." Daren sighed. "Thank you by the way for the help. All of it."

"You're welcome."

There was a chime and everyone looked at the GNX Brave. The repair bay was done and the Mobile Suit looked as good as new. Daren couldn't help but admire the machine as it stood in the bay, fascinated by the lifesize model. As Daren regarded the Mobile Suit as he went over the recent events in his mind. The ambush was certainly weighing heavily on him to the point of saying screw the game and never log on again. But after talking to those that had come to his aid, they had started making him think of everything that had happened before and after the skirmish. Heck. Now that he thought about it, there were even some parts during the fight that he had to admit were fun. His gaze went over every detail of the machine, working his way up until he was looking at the yellow visor that hid the cameras in the head of the mecha.

After a minute, he made up his mind.

"I think I'm going to take your suggestion and head back to the starting area. I need to get some more experience and then go from there. Maybe in a few months if I think I'm ready, I might join you guys. But until then, I think that it's best that I get stronger."

"Sounds like a good plan." Frost said as he gave an approving nod. "I hope to see you around and of course if you find yourself looking to join a guild or need some friends, feel free to call on us."