"...621. Is that... is that you? They... 621... I have to... dispose of you."

"The mission... My friends'... wishes... Look at you... 621... You found... a friend..."

Credits to @Xantrex for the thumbnail

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Handler Walter is a broker in charge of the independent mercenary Augmented Human C4-621 ("Raven"), operating together on the planet Rubicon 3.

As a child, Walter was a citizen of Rubicon 3 prior to the Fires of Ibis. His father, a scientist under the employ of the Rubicon Research Institute and a member of Professor Nagai’s Coral research team, had obsessed over his work with Coral to the point of being noticeably absent from Walter’s life.

At some point over the course of their research, Nagai and his team had discovered the potential threat Coral posed to humanity, and when the amount of Coral the Institute had collected threatened to cause a “collapse” that would propagate the substance across the stars, Nagai would enact a contingency to start the Fires of Ibis. Before the ignition, Nagai would arrange for Walter to leave the Rubicon 3 system. Through some means, Walter would be made privy to the Institute’s research and Coral before, during, or after the Fires. After the Fires, Walter founded the secret organization Overseer alongside “Cinder” Carla, who was a member of Nagai’s research team and a co-worker of his father. The group would monitor the ruins of Rubicon 3 for a resurgence of Coral and plotted to start a new Fire if necessary to stop it.

In public, Walter entered the independent mercenary scene as a broker for Armored Core pilots. He would eventually earn an infamous reputation, being dubbed “Handler Walter”, as the AC pilots that he brokered for were in fact augmented humans that underwent older iterations of augmentation surgery (Generation 4), who Walter obtained himself through more illicit means. As a result of the shortcomings from the older surgery, Walter’s AC pilots tended to be regarded as inhuman, and were known to be significantly subservient and dependent on him, so much so that they were referred to by Walter and others as his “Hounds”. However, the Hounds nevertheless proved to be capable combatants, and Walter (likely due to his father’s involvement in the invention of augmentation surgery) wasn’t as indifferent to them as some may be led to believe.

Walter would later come to clash with the independent mercenary Sulla, who claims to have killed several of Walter's Hounds in previous engagements, including 618.

After an operation against a Planetary Closure Administration position ended in a Pyrrhic victory, killing 617, 619, and 620, Walter obtained a new hound, 621, from a scientist that had previously supplied him with augmented humans.

Upon 621's arrival on Rubicon 3 under Walter's orders, Walter guides 621 in obtaining a mercenary license from AC wrecks so they can properly find work; eventually, they find a usable license with the callsign "Raven." Afterwards, Walter serves as Raven's (who Walter continues to refer to by their augmented human designation "621") Operator and manager, directing them to complete tasks and negotiating most of their contracts with Rubicon's numerous factions.

• IB-C03: HAL 826
The IB-C03: HAL 826 is a red and silver Rubicon Research Institute Ibis Series Armored Core — the only one of its kind designed to be piloted by a human. It is fully armed with Coral-based weaponry and a shield.

Long after Walter and 621's arrival on Rubicon 3, Walter pilots the AC to protect Xylem, the Floating City.In the Liberator of Rubicon ending, Walter pilots it after being brainwashed by Arquebus. However in the Alea Iacta Est ending, he consciously pilots it to defend Xylem's activation and fend off ALLMIND'S pilotless AC's & other mechs, before HAL 826 is crushed by ALLMIND itself.

In ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON, Handler Walter is an NPC serving primarily as the player character's mission control. By Chapter 2, he is joined by Ayre, who not only acts as complementary mission control but also fills in for Walter as he begins to send the player on missions without his direct supervision.

At the end of Chapter 4's final mission, "Reach the Coral Convergence" Walter will go missing and his role as mission control will instead be handled primarily by Ayre and "Cinder" Carla.

For the game's endings, the Fires of Raven path has a prerecorded message from Walter played following the ending's credits sequence. Meanwhile, the Liberator of Rubicon path has "Bring Down the Xylem" feature Walter in an AC as the final boss that appears once the player destroys the Xylem's two ramjet engines. The reward for defeating him is 340,000 COAM and his AC's frame parts; everything else is unlocked through the Arena Analysis division, the LOGHUNT, and finally found in two Hidden Parts chests during the Regain Control of the Xylem mission in the Alea Iacta Est play through. Lastly, in the Alea Iacta East path final mission "Coral Release," Walter is defeated by ALLMIND's SOL 644, with her MIND GAMMA standing atop HAL 826's headless wreck.

#Mecha #ArmoredCore