A pilot breathes heavily, she is dressed in a special suit that covers everything about her. She leans back into her chair. Around her blank screens begin to show her surroundings. She tests a few switches. The voice over her com, a man asks her how the suit looks. She tells him that everything looks green. The man responds that the target will soon reach her location.
An older man in an ECHO Admiral's uniform enters a command room. All around him a flashing red light and warning noises sound. A soldier salutes him and he is informed that "subject 01" has breached the first containment field and is headed outside. The Admiral ponders a moment and orders the M-Driver moved and to set Acheron into decontamination mode.
The female pilot watches a corridor entrance inside of an experimental mobile armor, she aims her rifle, an experimental weapon attached to multiple tubes at the entrance. She flicks another switch and the tubes begin filling with a liquid.
A group of soldiers are transporting a large capsule on a wheeled cart. They approach the elevator, the doors open and a women and two men in black suits points their weapons at the soldiers.
Back in the command room, the Admiral watches the screen as a blinking dot speeds through the corridor. Near the end, is another dot and the man at the com station informs the others that the M-Driver is about to engage the Exbien.
The Admiral orders that the Exbien intercepts the target. The female pilot inside the Exbien receives the order and she turns off the safety on her weapon. The corridor wall in-front of her bursts open and she hits the trigger. A large beam fires out of her rifle and pushes the target back.
The beam bends slightly and the M-Driver fires it back into the Exbien, an explosion occurs and the monitors in the control room disconnect. A female controller informs the Admiral that the upper wall is giving way. The com man tries to establish communication with the Exbien pilot. She confirms her safety, but informs him that the suit is in bad shape. He tells her to eject, but the Admiral interferes and orders that the Exbien stop the M-Driver at all costs.
The female pilot acknowledges the order, her suit looks up and sees that the M-Driver has begun breaking through the fortresses' outer wall. The Exbien stands up and flies upward toward the M-Driver.
The M-Driver turns and impales the Exbien. The girl yells at the M-Driver to die and she grabs onto the M-Driver's weapon and pulls her suit upward, impaling her suit further, but keeping the two suits deadlocked. The Exbien wraps around the M-Driver. The girl informs command that she intends to use the Exbien's self-destruct to destroy the M-Driver. The man tries to stop her. She tells him it'll be fine because she will use the M-Driver's cockpit ejection to avoid the blast radius.
The Exbien's hatch opens and the girl uses a cable to go toward the M-Driver. She is carrying an extension cable with a switch. As she reaches the M-Driver's cockpit, she hits a switch on the underside and it opens. She gets inside and disables the auto-system. She sends another transmission that she taken control of the M-Driver and hits the switch to self-destruct the Exbien. The self-destruct countdown begins and throughout the control room a sigh of relief sounds. The girl's voice sounds again on the com, a bit hesitant. The com man asks her what is wrong and she says that the eject command isn't working. He desperately tries to walk her through the steps again. But she tells him it's useless, someone cut the power to the eject button.
The man tells her it'll be alright, he'll send someone to get her. She smiles, "------, I'm sorry." The connection begins to fizzle, and the man begins to cry. The Admiral takes off his hat and the other soldiers salute. "Looks like I'll be the first one to break that promise----." The connection cuts and the girl looks out as a glow surrounds her. Two explosions are seen and a star in the sky falls. "Irelia!" The man calls out.
She apologizes to him for being the first to break the promise.
Reinard is found beat up on the streets of the sky island, Abrelius, by Stenr. Taking pity on the kid Stenr has his adoptive-daughter, Akena, nurse him back to health on his airship.
Reinard has a dream about a place in his childhood. He describes the location as a riverside surrounded by lush meadows and a great arch beside the river. He dreams further of laying beneath that arch, starring at the moon. A girl stands next to him, her face obscured by the darkness. He grabs her and pulls her forward.
Akena places a damp towel on Reinard's head. Suddenly his arms grab her and pulls her toward him, they two kiss.
Vilix enters the room carrying some boxes that obscure his view. Akena pushes herself away from Reinard to greet Vilix. Vilix places the boxes down and asks if she has a cold? She replies with a no, while blushing profusely. Vilix comments that he still isn't sure what Captain Stenr is doing. Since they are pirates. He leaves the room.
Akena leans against the door as it closes and asks Reinard how long he has been awake.
Reinard hesitantly gets up and responds, "Ever since they kissed." Akena blushes before asking him for an introduction.
Reinard apologizes and introduces himself. Everyone calls him Reinard, but that's all he can really remember. He doesn't know where he is. Akena tells him he is on the Rust Bucket, a pirate ship.
The ESFA Cruentus cruises steadily in the sky. The captain sits on a chair with her legs crossed. The ship's navigational map shows the sky island Abrelius. The navigator turns toward her and asks, "Captain Annalise, your orders ma'am?" Annalise stands up and orders the ship to go into stand-by. Mobile armor squads 1, 2, and 3 are to infiltrate the sky island to flush the Rust Bucket out.
The other crew members acknowledge and slowly nine mobile armors launch from the ship flying toward the sky island.
Reinard continues his explanation to Akena that before he knew it, he was in the town and was being mugged by a few strangers. After they saw his currency, they beat him up and left him for dead, currency and all. He blanked out and woke up embracing and kissing her. The two blush.
In a bar on Abrelius, Stenr goes to sit in a booth, he has a suitcase with him. Behind him another person sits down. The other person speaks, a female voice, "Stenr, did you bring the money?" "Stenr taps the suitcase beside him. "Of course." The woman continues, "I don't know much about it, but it was smuggled out of an ECHO facility on Luna Two, they call it: MDT. Apparently it's still in a test phase, the other details are as you have heard."
Reinard apologizes again to Akena, but he can't accept this hospitality after all. He leaves the room and goes up on deck. As soon as he sees the vastness of the sky, his mind is struck with awe. "Where exactly am I?" he thought to himself. Akena rushes after him, she sees him staring at the vastness of the sky, as if it were his first time seeing it.
Vilis rushes up deck and sees Akena and Reinard standing there. He throws her a tube with a shoulder strap on it, telling her to locate Stenr.
Akena takes Reinard's hand, breaking his dazed state. She tells him if he can't stay any longer, he should at least greet Stenr before he leaves. Because he is the one that found him. He agrees and tightens the grip on her hand. She blushes.
Stenr leaves the bar, he slips a clear plastic bag into his pocket and walks. Behind him, he notices that two muscular men are following. He turns a corner to lose them and the two rush after him. As they turn a corner, he points out his drawn sword toward them. The men feign surrender and knock his sword away. Stenr asks who they are working for. They brandish a red emblem on their chests.
Stenr nods and responds, "I don't think the Red Daggers have anything to do with myself?" The men take out their daggers and tell him that they don't know the specifics, but he is to come with them. Stenr surrenders and is handcuffed by the two.
Akena arrives at the same bar Stenr was at earlier. Reinard is with them. She goes inside and sees a woman sitting at a booth, drinking wine. She sits across from the woman, "Kisoko, do you know where Stenr is?" The woman opens her palm and does a beckoning gesture.
Akena gives her an aggravating look and hands her a few coins. After glancing at the coins, Kisoko tells Akena that the Red Daggers have him.
Inside a warehouse, Stenr is dragged by the two men infront of a screen. On the screen is a woman in woman in a black and red uniform, with red ribbons flowing from her head. "Red Ribbon Rin, I should have known." Rin asks Stenr if he had rather it been Big Ben." Stenr tells her that all Red Daggers is bad news, whether it be her or Big Ben. He turns and apologizes slightly sarcastically to the two behind him. Rin gets straight to the point and tells Stenr, she wants the thing he bought from the Black Tie Gang.
Stenr tries to play stupid and responds that he doesn't know what she's talking about.
Rin begins to threaten him as the connection cuts.
The two Red Dagger members behind him, take out weapons and grab cover by the doors. Stenrs rushes to the back and finds the emergency exit.
Hovering above the warehouse, three mobile armors are on standby. The pilot of one marked 01C, mentions that the criminals were amateurs to use an easily traced frequency for communication. A unit marked 01A hovers beside him and tells him to stop being distracted and to focus on the mission.
Around the warehouse, multiple swat teams are on standby. One of them makes an arm gesture and the rest rush in. As the swat members enter the building the sounds of metal clashing and gunfire cover the area.
As the conflict begins, Stenr sneaks out the backdoor, but is noticed by the 01C mobile armor. The pilot tells his team members to stay while he checks something out.
As Stenr runs, he notices the armor chasing him and takes refuge in another warehouse.
The pilor of 01C remarks that things will be a hassle if this keeps up. He turns off the safety on his machine guns and begins to blow apart the warehouse slowly. Shrapnel flings and cuts across Stenr's leg.
Akena and Reinard arrive on the scene. She notices the mobile armor shooting at the warehouse. A feeling in her mind tells her it's where Stenr is. She heads toward it and grabs out the tube from behind her back. Reinard runs after and tries to stop her. She tells him to watch, remarking that this is the life she has chosen. The tube reveals itself to be a retractable rocket launcher. As Akena gets closer she shoots the cockpit area of the mobile armor causing pilot to lose control and crashing the mobile armor into the warehouse.
Akena rushes toward the warehouse and inside, she finds Stenr bleeding.
The mobile armor labeled 01A orders 01B to investigates the crash. 01B confirms and flies toward the crash.
Akena pulls out some bandages and begins to help Stenr. She takes off his coat and begins to see if he has any other injuries while wrapping his leg. Reinard tries to scold her that it was dangerous. She tells him that Stenr is her father, he stops his lecture, remember the silhouette of his own father, whose face he cannot recall.
As she finishes bandaging Stenr, the mobile armor behind them begins to move. Akena holds up the rocket launcher and shoots another round at the cockpit, this time the armor plate infront of it falls off. The pilot freaks out and tries to reverse the nachine, causing the warehouse's foundation to crumble.
Reinard yells at Akena, telling her they have to move. Akena grabs Stenr by the shoulder and apologizes. Reinard grabs Stenr's coat. Stenr pushes his sun-glasses closer to his face and smiles.
Reinard helps Akena and the two escape the crumbling warehouse. Behind them the mobile armor labeled 01B lands. The pilot asks through the intercom what happened. Stenr tells him that he wasn't sure exactly, but a mobile armor crashed into the warehouse while he was working. He requests assistance. The pilot opens the cockpit and comes down to assist them. As the pilot goes to help Stenr. Stenr smiles and the pilot falls down, dead. He tells Akena to pilot it.
She helps Stenr into the machine and then tells Reinard to get on too. Reinard tells her this is where they part, wishing her good luck. She closes the hatch and begins to fly away.
Reinard says farewell and watches the machine fly away. But suddenly, machine gun fire comes out of the crashed mobile armor toward Akena's unit. Reinard rushes toward the downed mobile armor and sees it firing. He looks into the cockpit and sees the pilot in a crazed state holding the trigger down. The pilot notices him and quickly tries to strangle him.
Akena's unit crashes into the river. 01A sends out a message requesting assistance and then flies toward 01C.
Reinard struggles with the pilot and manages to reverse his position. He tries to use the coat to help strangle the pilot but is knocked down. The pilot gets a good grip on Reinard and as he struggles. Reinard notices a few clear pills fall out of the coat pocket. They fall and land into his open mouth, melting instantly.
A rush of understand fills Reinard's mind. Time seems to slow itself and he is more aware. He grabs the seat belt latch and hits the pilot with it. The pilot let's go of Reinard and covers his head, which is now bleeding. Reinard uses his fingers and pokes the pilot's eyes. The pilot screams and tries to retaliate but Reinard dodges and then knocks the pilot out of the cockpit.
On top of the mobile armor, Reinard pushes the pilot off and the pilot falls onto a metal beam, impaling himself. Reinard sees the other mobile armor heading toward them and he heads toward the impaled pilot.
Annalise closes a file and speaks to herself on the bridge. "Moon Driver the artificial birth of "The Lunatic Taker"." "Something wrong ma'am?" The navigator questions. Annalise tells her no, she was just mumbling to herself.
Glossary[]
Acheron - A ECHO mobile weapons development base within the Mirror Wall.
MD 00 Exbein - The original Moon;Driver prototype, it was supposedly destroyed during First Impact in Acheron.