Dive (story)

Stages 46 to 50 of the **Dive game mode** feature a story portraying the Alphatrix Group as they go after the Scavengers.

## Appearances

* Mine foreman
* Rojo
* Raúl
* Vice Chairman
* Xiao Lin
* Machine Collector
* Eujin
* Kim Sobin
* Lena Mackenzie
* Chloe Starseeker
* Machine G.A.P.
* Evolved One
* Shin Jia
* Lee Jin
* Sysop
* Evolved One
* Lee Sooyeon
* Sysop (In flashback(s))

## Plot

### Measured Coordinates 46

An Eternium mining concession operated by the Alphatrix Group is attacked by unnamed pirates. These pirates are soon ambushed and eliminated by the Scavengers, who subsequently turn on the mining team and steal the research ship hidden below the base. The Vice Chairman of the Alphatrix Group hires a number of TASKFORCE companies, including Coffin Company, to retrieve the ship and the research data it is carrying. With Fenrir Squad and Seo Yoon away on a different mission, Xiao Lin of ALT Squad is assigned to lead Coffin Company's recovery squad; since the Coffin is unavailable, Lin has to rent out a ship from a rental company

Meanwhile, the Machine Collector, the current de facto leader of the Scavengers, is trying to extract "the head" of the Scavenger's previous leader from the research ship. To buy some time, she orders Rojo to Dive back to their base in the Substorm of the Counterside and have his men lure other pirate groups towards Alphatrix's coalition fleet as a distraction. Raúl doesn't trust the Collector since she intends to control their former leader, but Rojo tells him not to get any ideas and stick to the plan.

ALT Squad is able to push through the decoy pirates and catch up with the Scavengers' flagship, the Matador, but the Scavengers still manage to escape by nosediving into another dimension.

### Measured Coordinates 47

After the Vice Chairman rebukes the coalition fleet for losing the Scavengers, Xiao Lin reports back to her boss and the Vice President. She recalls that the Scavengers had previously gone up against the Administration Coalition Fleet and lost half their forces to a gigantic being at the end of their battle – she wonders if this being is the reason why the Vice Chairman of Alphatrix hired some many mercenaries for this particular mission. Afterwards, Lin signs off and ALT Squad proceeds to go after the Scavengers with the rest of the fleet again.

While the other mercenary ships dive and follow decoy coordinates, ALT Squad manages to track down the Scavenger's Dive signals but are unable to dive immediately because the rental ship is slow to respond. Meanwhile, Lena Mackenzie detects that the signals of the other ships that have already dove have mysteriously disappeared.

### Measured Coordinates 48

With most of the fleet now gone, the Vice Chairman decides to reveals to the remaining forces what the research ship contains. But before he can do so, the Machine Collector hijacks the communication signal and warns everyone listening in to turn back or else.

The Matador is almost ready to dive into the Substorm with its Eternium Drive charged at 70%. As she continues to disable the research ship's security system, the Machine Collector asks why the Scavengers want the head of their leader when they already have its body. Rojo answers they can replace the body but not the head, much to the Collector's confusion.

ALT Squad and Alphatrix's remaining forces finally catch up to the Scavengers with the help of the Machine G.A.P. To repel them, the Machine Collector deploys Chronos Beta, a gigantic war robot and Alphatrix's apparent target, and uses it to effortlessly shoot down multiple ships. ALT Squad also deploys and engages the Mech; Xiao Lin is able to deal a devastating blow to Chronos Beta using CRF cluster munitions, but to everyone's surprise the Mech quickly repairs itself using material from the wrecked ships. Fortunately, Alphatrix Innovation leader Shin Jia arrives and uses special EMP bullets to stop Chrono Beta's regeneration ability, forcing the Scavengers to retreat. The Vice Chairman, who is Jia's uncle, had never informed Innovation about the stolen research ship, which was why the group was not originally part of the coalition.

Jia meets with ALT Squad and escorts them back to their ship so they can recover. Before the Innovation crew departs to pursue the Scavengers, Lin offers Jia a tool to help her retrieve the research ship.

### Measured Coordinates 49

The Matador is thirty minutes away from reaching the Substorm when Alphatrix Innovation's ship appears right above it. Rojo enters an escape pod, launches himself directly towards Innovation's ship and breaks into its interior. Lee Jin and her crew attack him, but the cyborg easily plows through them, using the Machine Collector's parasites disable the crew's firearms. Shin Jia arrives and uses an antivirus (the tool Lin had given her earlier) to disable the parasites, and incapacitates Rojo by firing her rifle directly into his heart.

Soon after, Innovation's ship operator informs Jin that the stolen research ship is emitting high-density energy responses. Alarmed, Jin orders the crew to drop their original mission and destroy the ship instead. Rojo suddenly gets back up, revealing he has multiple hearts to keep him alive, and escapes after the Matador launches its harpoons at his location. The Scavengers then deploy another escape pod along a dimensional route towards the Substorm; the tag on the pod reads "Evolved One", a name that causes Jin to dread. Jin orders the ship to call in for reinforcements and immediately follow the Scavengers before they insert the core into the Evolved One.

### Measured Coordinates 50

As Alphatrix Innovation's crew arrives at the escape pod's landing spot within the Substorm, the Scavengers are at their base connecting the head to a Mech body similar to but far more powerful than the Chronos Beta. Soon, the "Evolved One" is reactivated and begins approaching towards Alphatrix's ship, heavily damaging it on her way with her heavy weapons. A long, arduous battle of attrition ensues with the Alphatrix crew nearing defeat when Shin Jia ambushes the Evolved One from behind and seemingly shuts her down with an EMP bullet. But when Jia tries to retrieve the head, the Evolved One immediately comes back online and nearly incapacitates her; claiming to be evolution itself, the Evolved One explains she is capable of upgrading herself—or "evolving" as she likes to put it—to be stronger and has been doing so since her last battle with Alphatrix and the Administration.

Recognizing the Evolved One's true identity, Jia asks the Mech if she became what she is now because of her uncle. The Evolved One denies this and states she accomplished her transformation on her own and without any regrets. When Jia reasserts that she must take the her down, the Evolved One decides to spare her — seeing that Jia's grandfather, the Alphatrix Chairman, had "succeeded," she says she is curious to see how Jia will develop as a human being. The Evolved One leaves the battlefield as ALT Squad and Alphatrix arrive to recover Jia and the stolen research ship.

Despite the mission being a success, the Vice Chairman refuses to pay Coffin Company because they let the Scavenger's steal the Evolved One's core. However, Lee Sooyeon pressures him to not only honor the deal but also give her company extra payment when she tells reminds him that the research ship also contained illegally-kept data, such as information about the Replacer Syndicate and experiments at imitating Mental Printing.

Back within the Substorm, the Machine Collector confronts the Evolved One, whose real identity is Doctor Ember, the designer of the Titan and ex-director of Future-at-War; after her explusion from FAW, Doctor Ember exiled herself to the Counterside and joined the Scavengers, giving the pirates access to high-end technology and eventually turning herself into the robot leader she is now. As she is not interested in trying to control something that is not a "pure" machine, the Collector says she has a proposition for the Evolved One.

Meanwhile inside the Scavenger's base, Raúl performs surgery on Rojo and gives him yet another heart, one that can heal him with the Machine Collector's parasites. Soon afterwards, Rojo excitedly goes out to test out his new organ.

## Gallery

Evolved One reveals herself.Shin Jia speaks with the Evolved One.The Evolved One leaves Jia behind.