The garage is quiet except for the steady thrum of generators and the distant metallic ticking of cooling armor. Beyond the reinforced blast doors lies the red expanse of Mars, harsh and wind-scoured beneath a pale industrial sky. Inside, the space is all concrete, steel, cable runs, and dim utility lighting, built more for function than comfort. A single Armored Core rests in the launch cradle at the center of the bay, incomplete but waiting, surrounded by maintenance gantries, parts racks, and the hard glow of terminal displays.

At the far end of the garage, the main operations console flickers to life. Blue interface lights ripple across the screen as the system boots through layer after layer of diagnostics, account verification, and combat registry checks. The emblem of Nerves Concord resolves against the dark glass, followed by a cascade of system messages: financial status, garage assignment, available parts inventory, Arena registration, and unread mail. Mars does not care who arrived yesterday or who survived somewhere else. Here, only performance has value.

Across the colonies, corporations like Zio Matrix, Emeraude, and Balena buy victory one contract at a time, while the LCC watches from above with its own interests and authority. Every Raven in the system is a weapon waiting to be pointed at someone else. Some fight for credits. Some for reputation. Some because the cockpit is the only place where anything makes sense. Missions come and go. Rivals rise and fall. Wreckage is cleared away, and the next sortie begins.

Another screen opens automatically: the Arena. Rank listings scroll past in ordered columns, names and machine designations stacked one above the next. At the summit sits the current Nine Breaker, Tavian Voss, pilot of Cold Meridian—a name spoken with the kind of respect that borders on warning. Beneath that towering benchmark lies an entire world of contracts, opponents, mail, debt, upgrades, and ambition. The terminal hums softly, awaiting its first command.

NERVES CONCORD // GARAGE TERMINAL ONLINE Welcome, Raven. Please select a function: GARAGE / SHOP / MAIL / MISSIONS / ARENA