Generatedname Note: This is the first side story to Agent Orimura, which was written by Warmach1ne32, who has also created Wasp Squadron. I will be posting this, as well as any future side stories, into a single collection. Any story in this collection can be considered Agent Orimura Canon, as they have been reviewed by me personally before their posting and I trust my future self to filter out contradictions to my own canon.

This story in particular focuses on Wasp Squadron and the immediate aftermath of their match with Charlotte's Les Belles Furies. Once again, all credit for this story goes to Warmach1ne32.

After returning to our hotel, each member of my squad is coping with our defeat in their own way. Trudy is in a daze as she stares at her phone, likely thinking of how to break the news to her parents. Ashley has curled herself into a ball on the bed and you can just imagine a raincloud over her head. Asaga is sitting on the bed consoling her depressed friend, and Valen is gazing pensively at the window. As for me? Well I keep replaying the battle, what if-ing from the arena to the hotel. What I got out that is that I am so outgunned it's not even funny. Suddenly the room's phone chimed in. Asaga went to answer, as she is the closest.

"Hello, Wasp squadron, Asaga speaking."

Asaga stiffens, pales, and gulps before locking eyes with me.

Oh dear.

"It's for you." Asaga said apologetically as she handed the phone to me. "Hello?"

"Turn on your room's TV." A feminine yet cold voice from the phone spoke in reply. I picked up the remote, turned the TV on and activated the video call feature. On the screen is a beautiful black haired woman with her hair styled in a neat bun and possessing sharp black eyes that are currently staring more holes into me than that symphony of firepower which most people would call Charlotte's IS.

"So, what have you learned today, class?" at her cold tone, everyone winced.

"We were severely out-gunned, ma'am." Trudy, deciding to be the noble knight, has taken one for the team.

The woman, currently leaning back into her chair whilst crossing her arms, is Splitwire's CEO, Evelyn Brooks, aka our sponsor and boss. She took out her phone and pressed on her screen to display a video of me barely fending off Charlotte's assault "Clearly. What else?"

"We got picked off one by one." I answered, I am the squad leader I shouldn't have my subordinates take the heat for my mistakes.

With another press of her phone, the TV now displays each of us getting shot down. "Anyone else?" Looking directly at Ashley.

"I freeze up." Ashley, meekly says above a whisper that I doubt Ms. Brooks could hear. Yet with another press of her phone, shows Ashley barely contributing to the fight.

"I made assumptions." Trudy spoke again. And again Ms. Brooks pressed her phone to show Trudy flying head first into the smoke before it explodes.

"And finally?"

After some thought I replied, "I was whittled down in a 1v2." And once again the TV now displays the two pilots of Charlotte's squad flying literal circles around me before Charlotte shredded me.

Once the video ended, it is closed to show Ms. Brooks displeasure. "Have you all learned from this?" Everyone nod their heads, which caused Ms. Brooks to sigh and stop staring holes into all of us, her eyes losing their edge.

"Good. The company invested a lot of money, manpower, and trust to ensure you have weapons that give you an edge. While, I never expected you to win the entire tournament, what with Orimura and that Gen-4 TIS, I had hoped that you at least manage to showcase all of the technology that was entrusted to you and not squander our time and resources. Report your equipment's performance to Darren and plan ways to improve your team performance. A team is only as strong as their weakest link and I don't want you to have any. Brooks out."

With that the screen shut down.

Everyone, including me, breathed a sigh of relief.

"Ms. Brooks is scary." Ashley replied as she shivered in fear.

"Yeah, but that was very brave of you Ashley, admitting your flaws even under that Medusa stare." Asaga says, cheering Ashley up and lightening the mood.

While the two are animatedly talking about who is scarier than Ms. Brooks, I can see the changes that her stern words have done. Ashley isn't depressed anymore, Trudy is making that phone call that she was hesitating to make before, and Valen is using her phone with a fire in her eyes where before it was clouded wth doubt.

For me, after hearing everyone's doubts and seeing what happened from an outsider's perspective, I have come to understand that there was no way we could have won with the equipment we have, or at the very least, my plan to split up definitely did not help. However, seeing everyone determined and smiling, fills me with similar determination to be a better leader and thank Ms. Brooks for putting her trust in us by winning the next battle.

Shortly thereafter, the phone is received another call. I activate the TV's video conferencing again, and see Splitwire's lead scientist/designer/tech expert/founder of Splitwire aka the guy in charge of our equipment. The man on the screen is Darren Hadi, a black-haired and skinny, glasses wearing man in a lab coat.

"So, how are you holding up?" Darren had an apologetic expression on his face, he likely heard us getting grilled by Ms. Brooks.

"Well, we just got stomped, rekt, and grilled, so pretty good." Asaga replied

"(sigh) Look, I'm sorry Evelyn is being strict with you. We invested a lot of money and development time into the tech you use and, as you know, we planned to have these tournaments act as advertising for our products so that buyers can see how well our tech is fairing. Since we lost, she will be under a lot of pressure from the shareholders who want results. They weren't keen on investing a lot of money into sponsoring a team so the only thing stopping them from cutting the sponsorship is Evelyn's skills in corporate politics and persuasion, the contract you all signed, and Indonesia forking just under half of the development cost for a discounted price on our products when we begin mass production in a few months. You guys did some good though, like Asaga being able to manually shoot down missiles using STATS and the Trinities, not to mention her melting an IS practically instantly,"

You can almost see Asaga's head get more inflated with her ego at Darren's praise.

"Trudy's Drones have been seen to survive a barrage of missiles and keep on going, and Leang being able to hold off a Gen 3.5 IS in a Gen 2.5 unit for two minutes is an impressive feat."

"However, as you know, we did invest in nine separate technologies that we are interested in selling. Those are: Trudy's layered shields and armor drones, Asaga's Trinities, the Thor capacitors, Ashley's weapon mods; specifically the Storm and Sparky mods, the Wizard Laser Point Defense, Valen's Mag Harpoon we co-developed with WSI, and the Metalic Foam IS armor set. Out of those nine, you only managed to showcase three."

He then looked at each of us, "Trudy, you got eliminated before you manage to show our layered shields. However, you did show our armor drones capable of shrugging off a dozen missiles, and that has Japan being extremely interested in buying a package. Most likely for their Uchiganes. Other entities like the US, EU, and other SEA are also showing some interest in them. We might also be able to persuade some to buy our Metallic Foam IS pilot armor, as its reduced weight, coupled with its increased protection against energy weapons without losing their effectiveness against ballistic weaponry, makes it an attractive item."

"Asaga you managed to manually shoot down high speed missiles with the Trinities and take down an IS in under a second. That's definitely gotten a few people interested, and several countries are already in the early stages of setting up contracts. Thanks to you, we were able to show off something that you don't need to carry lots of ammunition for, but still packs a lot of firepower, especially for an MPIS weapon."

"Finally, Valen, your father's Mag Harpoon have sparked the interest of several countries, most notably Germany. Details will be discussed with WSI and your father at a later date, probably months in the future."

"Our most generous estimates show that the Armor and Trinity sales would cover approximately fifty percent of our total R&D expenses. Luckily there is also the tag-team tournament where we can showcase the rest of our tech again; however we are going to be limited in the amount of tech we can develop now that the shareholders aren't very pleased. So Evelyn managed to get us half of the expected Armor Drone and Trinity contract deals in to develop team Wasp's effectiveness."

I smiled and said, "Terima Kasih (Thank You)."

"No problem, now just email the data STATS gathered of the battle to me."

I opened my laptop and started to send the STATS's recorded data of the fight to Darren.

"While we wait for that to finish, let's talk about the ways we can improve."

"Well, we were overwhelmed with missiles in the beginning, so maybe some chaff on Paladin and Angel would be a great addition." Angel says.

Strangely enough you see Darren pale a bit.

"Uhh... those exist?" he whispered in a combination of embarrassment and disbelief.

...

"I may have overlooked their importance in the final designs," The girls and I glare daggers at him at that.

"In my defense, I thought two Wizards, a Trinity array, Sparky being able to short circuit the missiles' guidance systems, and the shield drones tanking what is left would have been enough to weather any barrage. Flares and chaff seemed redundant on top of all that." He hastily added.

"Although, now that you mention it, the Roar's are laser guided so they aren't going to be affected by flares, while the common heat/impulse tracking missiles are going to be effected. I think this is a 'why didn't I think of that' moment. I'll add basic impulse flares and radar chaff to your next upgrade package." Darren says as he sheepishly made notes.

"That aside," I said to get back on topic, "I had no good mid-ranged option, so maybe a rotary cannon would be helpful."

"Hmm, we do have that Prototype UV Trinity for TIS use, since the power requirement needed to run it is too much for an MPIS. We could stack your Roar Rocket launchers to free up space for a UV Trinity turret, that might work." Darren says as he continues to make notes. "Anything else?"

"I don't have a good ranged option too, but I doubt the Paladin can fit a Trinity without losing her maneuverability." Trudy says.

"We could strap Angel's Storm plasma shotgun to your arm with an electronic sensor trigger that would only charge if you are not holding your sword and the fire line is clear." Darren took note of that while Trudy smiled and nodded in agreement.

"I wasn't able to meaninfully support anyone." Angel said, a few unshed tears gathering in her eye.

Darren winced but once again tries to think of a solution. "We are currently developing coilgun weapons for a design that isn't as energy intensive as the Trinities but can still pack a punch and have a longer range. I'll see if a prototype can be sent for testing." Darren smiled at Ashley to calm her down, which she does and smiles back.

"When I use the Mag Harpoon I am immobilized, and I don't have the range to pick off an IS trapped in the harpoon." Valen replied, her voice bearing a light Russian accent.

"Hmm, I guess most of the 'improve Wasp squadron' money is going to the Coilgun team, as they have a prototype Coilgun cannon ready to for field tests. Maybe have it under-arm mounted like a Trinity with your Mag Harpoon over-arm mounted on the same arm. That should eliminate the need to aim them separately and with your free left hand you can carry a large diamond-like-carbon shield, much like the ones used in Trudy's drones, for extra protection." With that Valentina nodded from her seat on the bed.

"What about you Asaga?" Darren asked the only member that haven't been discussed yet.

"Hmmm~, I don't think so, I think Sera did as good a job as she can." Asaga replied.

"Alright then, as a recap, sometime before the next tournament begins, you'll get a package of flares for Angel and Paladin, Coilguns for Angel and Akula, a DLC shield for Akula, UV Trinity for Tigress, and an extra Storm for Paladin. Anything else you might want to add?" Darren asked.

"Do you think you can add a Coilgun assault rifle for Tigress? I want to have something with more range than my SMRs."

"Alright, Kelvin is going to be happy to get more funding, I'll relay these request to the Coilgun team and make sure that they deliver as a few days after the tournamet is finished. See you soon." With that Darren cut the connection and the room is once again in an awkward silence.

Suddenly Asaga's phone alarm ringed, "Ahh! I forgot I have a stream planned once we won our 1st match, now I have to say that we lost."

"Stream?" Trudy asked.

"Yeah, I stream World of IS and Call of Duty: Stratos Warfare 2 on occasion when I am not winning tournament events. I am partially paying for my ISA tuition fee with my accumulated tournament winnings, donations from my fans, and WeTube Ad revenue. It's basically my job that I enjoy." Asaga explained as she halfheartedly started to set up her laptop and equipment. "Hey, why don't I introduce you guys? Please? It's not like we have anything important to do."

"Sure." I replied

"Okay." Ashley answered

"I'm fine with you introducing us but I'll just watch the tournament for when the teams with advanced weapons are on." Trudy said

Valen just silently looked in Asaga's direction with a quirked eyebrow.

"Great I'll boot up my laptops and streaming equipment!" Asaga said as she got to work.

Before long she had everything in order, the camera was on, and the video capture software was transmitting.

"Konnichiwa, minna, Black Jack is back and welcome to the streamn straight after our first IS squadron battle... Where we got promptly and utterly crushed, (sigh). I know hard to believe right? But the other team was really good too with lots of guns, rockets and bullets flying everywhere. Everyone on the team made mistakes here, except me of cours-" At this everyone glared at her from the background, which Asaga can see clearly on her laptop screen, "…A-Anyway speaking of the team let me introduce you guys to the Jack Chat."-

"Jack Chat, meet our fearless leader Leang Halim the Indonesian representative, if you slept through your geography class, Indonesia is the country of islands just above Australia. Did you know that the island to the left of the one that looks like a K is called Kalimantan, or Borneo, while the K shaped island itself is called Sulawesi. I know it is weird that the K shaped island isn't named with a K."

I think, I face-palmed hard enough to be heard by the mic. But I'm to distracted by the pain and the embarassment to bother.

"Next up is the team's German 2IC Trudy Hartmann and you know what they say about German humor, it's no laughing matter."

Ok, that is pretty clever, I have to admit. Although judging by Trudy's twitching eye, she doesn't think so. She glares at me and Ashley as we both try and fail to contain our giggles.

"Next is my Super Bestie, Better than the Restie, Ashley Parker, who has a sister that is also a squadron leader here in ISA. Say hi Ashley!"

"Hello." Ashley softly said with a smile and hand wave.

"And finally our silent but deadly Russian pilot who can kill someone in five different ways by staring holes into your souls, Valentina Zalinsky." You can see Valen glaring holes into Asaga and the camera, while "Dead/died/murdered" is spammed good-naturedly in the chat.

"Now Ashley here will moderate the chat and answer any reasonable questions you might have on the squadron while I warm up my instruments of destruction, aka my fingers."

We see a lot of overlays on the screen, from music selections on the side, what looks like a donation cup, a facecam to allow the stream to see her face, a donation counter and what looks like subscriber tracker on the side. Asaga opens what looks like a typing game, where you defeat alien invaders by typing on the words on their ships and missiles. As Ashley is answering questions from the chat, mostly simple inquiries like 'what is it like at ISA?', you can see Asaga's fingers slowly pick up speed as a fast paced electronic music plays in the background. 'Not a bad song.' I thought as it continues to play.

"Wow, I can see her manually shoot down missiles with Sera." You hear Trudy say as you both watch as Asaga type at a blistering speed. Her eyes scanning the screen and is annihilating words in seconds. Before long she is fighting a Mothership and is winning.

"Oh, Thankies~!" suddenly chimes in as a picture of Asaga giving a wink and thumbs up appeared on the stream in the top right corner with the words "StrakeY2k just donated 1$"

"Thank you StrakeY2K, for the one dollah donation to my future Ferrari. Give 'em some dirty e-sports money in the chat." Asaga said as an emote of a hand making it rain money is spammed in the chat.

"...and~ GG. Now that warm ups are done, let's start a game of Call of Duty: Stratos Warfare 2 and commence our weekly Strat-roulette, where you submit strategies and load-outs while I try to win a 1v1 death match using that strat. You know the drill, submit your suggestion in my website you see in my profile, which will automatically update my spreadsheet here. Next I activate the RNG machine and hope to RNGesus that I have something that is surprisingly effective that I haven't tried before.

"That is really well thought out." I said in surprise at the amount of planning and work that is done to make an entertaining stream with audience participation.

"Oh, Stratroulette is sort of like a gaming tradition for those of high enough level to play strategies that the subs want to see but you would never see in an official tournament because everyone will be using their best builds on tournaments and not meme strats that limit you. I just borrowed the format from another streamer from a different game." Asaga answers to my comment. "Getting the streaming software to add in overlays is like pulling teeth back when I first started out, I needed to read a whole bunch of computer instructions just to understand what does what."

"And we have number 17 which is short-ranged ballistic weapons only, with boosts huh? Hmm I can work with that. Alright let's make a new load out~ place a Minigun in both my left and right shoulder slot, SMGs with Super-shotties as secondary hands slot, Legs with Boost, light torso armor, and helmet mounted red-dot sight. There it is, now let's do a Casual 1v1.

Once the 1v1 match loads, we each see a zoomed in picture of the IS Asaga is using and the IS her opponent is using.

"Uhh, looks like a pretty standard Uchigane, lucky~ me. As most of you IS enthusiast know Uchiganes are the opposite of Revives, focusing on speed, powerful melee attacks, and strong shields to rush and crush their opponents. And here, we, Go!"

Once the match started Asaga quickly boosts backwards while shooting at her opponent with her weaponry.

"Boost backwards as she is closing the distance, while peppering her with my dual SMG and miniguns. Uchigane's higher base speed means that she will catch up eventually and with boosts they can close in even faster, so once she is too close… Deactivate drives and free fall."

We see the background sky starts to shift like Asaga is falling on her back and the Uchigane start to zoom past.

"And~ Surprise~!" Asaga quickly switched her SMGs with her shotguns and promptly and quickly defeated her opponent with two double barreled shotgun blasts to it's face.

"Now that maneuver only works against melee IS suits, and only just as they are about to strike while you are already moving backwards, but it is pretty easy to do. It forces your enemies to overshoot and they have to either kill their momentum, turning themselves into sitting ducks, or loop around, giving me more time to kill her with bug bites. If my enemy was a ranged fighter I would close the distance and hope they miss since I can't kite a ranged fighter as I would with a melee. As for another ranged close range IS, well by that point it is all in how skilled you are in usi-. Thank you WewYO, for the sub. As I was saying, using your equipment" Asaga explained to the chat as she exited the queue.

"Hey, Ashley is that your sister?" Trudy asked as someone that have a familial resemblance to Ashley is on the TV screen with her squad.

This attracted the attention of everyone. "Your right it is! Go get'em Sis!" Ashley excitedly cheered. It is good to see her be excited for a change.

"F-it we are doing it live! Alright Chat, we have a special opportunity here, a live 5v5 IS battle here. Let me just detach the camera and now you can see the battle together with us. So grab some popcorn and enjoy the show!"

Generatedname note: Naturally, Ashley's sister's squadron is currently in the works and, once submitted and reviewed, will become Warmach1ne32's second OC squadron to be added to Agent Orimura.