Vespers

The Vespers (ヴェスパー) is a combat unit of augmented pilots under the Arquebus Corporation. Each member of the Vespers also leads their own squad, as denoted by their call number. For example, V.II Snail is the head of the Vespers' second squad.

Members

• V.I Freud (leader)
• V.II Snail (deputy commander)
• V.III O'Keeffe (Arquebus Special Intelligence officer)
• V.IV Rusty (double agent of the RLF)
• V.V Hawkins (head of the transport corps)
• V.VI Maeterlinck
• V.VII Swinburne (treasurer)
• V.VIII Pater (mercenary liaison and adjutant to V.V)
• G3 Wu Huahai (defects from the Redguns to the Vespers)

Gameplay

In ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON, the Vespers are one of the factions affecting the plot. As an Arquebus asset, their appearances in the game typically involve furthering the corporation's interests.

V.IV Rusty is a friendly NPC in the missions "Operation Wallclimber" and "Destroy the Drive Block", while V.II Snail is a friendly NPC in the mission "Destroy the Ice Worm".

Gallery

Data Log, Image Data: STV Sketch (4)

Armored Cores

AC Data icon for LOCKSMITH piloted by V.I Freud

AC Data icon for OPEN FAITH piloted by V.II Snail

AC Data icon for BARREN FLOWER piloted by V.III O'Keeffe

AC Data icon for STEEL HAZE piloted by V.IV Rusty

AC Data icon for RECONFIG piloted by V.V Hawkins

AC Data icon for INFECTION piloted by V.VI Maeterlinck

AC Data icon for GUIDANCE piloted by V.VII Swinburne

AC Data icon for DUAL NATURE piloted by V.VIII Pater

Emblems

V.I Freud

V.II Snail

V.III O'Keeffe

V.IV Rusty

V.V Hawkins

V.VI Maeterlinck

V.VII Swinburne

V.VIII Pater

Translation differences

Whereas the English script reads the Vesper callsigns by their letter plus their number (e.g. V.IV read as "Vee-Four"), the Japanese script instead reads it as "Vesper" combined with the number (e.g. V.IV as "Vesper Four").

Trivia

• All members of the Vesper except V.IV Rusty are named after a variety of famous artists, musicians, philosophers and poets.
  • V.I Freud is named after famous Austrian Neurologist Sigmund Freud.
  • V.II Snail is arguably named after a quote by Salvador Dalí regarding Sigmund Freud where he exclaimed "Freud's cranium is a snail!"
    • This could be further reinforcement that Freud is controlled directly by Snail, who often uses him as an attack dog, whereas Freud simply enjoys the thrill of fighting.
  • V.III O'Keeffe is named after American modernist painter Georgia Totto O'Keeffe.
  • V.IV Rusty lacks a clear reference to his name. This closest is a painting of a Wolf, titled Rusty, by painter Leon Kelly. Incidentally, the painting is numbered 617, and that number also belonged to one of Walter's hounds from the Story Trailer. Also incidentally, 617's survival was up in the air, while 619 and 620 were confirmed KIA.
  • V.V Hawkins doesn't have an apparent namesake as Hawkins is a very common last name. The mostly likely candidate is American scientist and philosopher David Hawkins.
  • V.VI Maeterlinck is named after Belgian playwright Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck.
  • V.VII Swinburne is named after English playwright and poet Algernon Charles Swinburne.
  • V.VIII Pater is named after English essayist and art critic Walter Horatio Pater.
• All members of the Vespers have humans or a human body part as the focus of their emblems, with the sole exception being Rusty, who uses a lone muzzled Wolf, further hinting at his ulterior motives for the Rubicon Liberation Front. Additionally, all Vesper emblems use a shield for their base. Rusty switching from the Vespers' trademark shield to the RLF's banner format for his second emblem signifies his shift in allegiances.
• Pater is promoted at certain points in the story. At the start, he is V.VIII, in the mission Escape (after mission Ambush the Vespers), he is V. V, in the mission M.I.A (after Eliminate V.III in Alea Iacta Est path), he is V.III .
• Combat banter reveals that Pater seems to get along with Hawkins and O'Keeffe.
  • Pater is noticeably frustrated by the fact that the player killed O'Keeffe.
  • Pater weeps if you kill Hawkins first, but immediately considers the promotion to V.V.
• Most of the Vespers employ relatively recent augmentation technology, mostly Gen 7 to Gen 10.
  • V.III O'Keefe went through an older generation of augmented surgery first before being upgraded to Gen 9 after joining the Vespers. It's because of this that his brain had a Coral burn-in and therefore had potential for "contact" and was scouted by and worked for ALLMIND in the past.
  • V.I Freud is the only exception. He's an ordinary human being who's simply good at outfitting his AC to meet whatever challenge the mission brings.