A/N: I am a fan Infinite Stratos but have been unable to find very many good fanfics written for it. As such I have decided to write my own. I don't think anyone has written a fanfic like this one, but if anyone has, I apologize. I am not trying to copy or steal your story. I am in the military so I don't know how often I'll be able to update, but I will try my best to update as often as possible.

I do not own Infinite Stratos or any of its characters. I only own my own original characters and the plot. Infinite Stratos belongs to Izuru Yumizuru. I am not making any profits by writing this story. It is purely for fun.

Prologue Start

Infinite Stratos, a mechanized exo-skeleton, was invented ten years ago. Through tests, it has been shown that the Infinite Stratos, or I.S. for short, can outperform any military in the world. While an exaggeration, that statement is more true than anyone would like to admit. Only other I.S. are capable of defeating an I.S. in single combat. When it was revealed, every nation wanted to get their hands on it. There was only one problem, no one knew how to create the I.S. cores, which provided power and massive computing capability to the I.S., except for its creator, Tabane Shinonono, and she was only willing to create 4,670 cores.

It all started in 2006 with the 'White Knight Incident'. An unknown person or persons, hacked the ICBM's of every nuclear country and launched them all at Japan. There were about 30,000 ICBM's capable of being launched. Luckily, all but about 2,600 were disabled or shot down soon after launch. Twenty-six hundred ICBM's would still be able to destroy Japan, though. With only one hour left before they hit their targets, the White Knight, the first I.S., appeared. In only half an hour, it had destroyed every ICBM heading towards Japan. By this time, the JMSDF and America's 7th Fleet had mobilized and launched jets. The pilots were ordered to shoot down any remaining ICBM's and intercept and apprehend the White Knight by any means necessary. It was a one-sided massacre. Every jet was shot down, and over ninety percent of the combined Japanese-American fleet was destroyed. Surprisingly, there were no reported deaths. It was then revealed that the White Knight was an Infinite Stratos.

Within a year, all the first-world countries had received four thousand of the I.S. cores. Of course, nations such as the U.S.A., Russia, and China received more cores than the other nations. Five hundred cores were given to the major companies and corporations. The remaining 170 cores were given to the I.S. Academy after it was founded in 2008.

One interesting piece of information the world discovered was that only females could pilot Infinite Stratos. It is estimated that 50% of the world's females population could activate an I.S., but of that number only 10% would actually be capable of piloting one, and less than 1% of that 10% would ever actually have to opportunity to do so. Because women were the only ones capable of piloting an I.S., the social balance between men and women was turned on its head in favor of women. It became so bad, that in some places, men could supposedly be thrown in prison for not obeying a woman. However, it has not been confirmed if that's true.

To show off their newest I.S., the nations that possessed I.S. started a yearly I.S. tournament that they called the Mondo Grosso. The winner of the first Mondo Grosso and runner up to the second was Chifuyu Orimura. Because of this, most I.S. have a "sports" configuration. In only ten years, I.S. have gone from the first generation units to second generation units and even the rare third generation units.

Thanks to the Alaska Treaty preventing Infinite Stratos from being used in war, World War 3 has not broken out, yet. While there are still wars, they are fought "conventionally," though that isn't the same as it was ten years ago. Thanks to advancements made due to the I.S., technology has advanced faster than ever before. There are prototype powered exo-skeletons that anyone can use, and even man-portable beam weapons.

This relatively peaceful world ended 11 years after the I.S. was invented.

Prologue End

A/N: I know this chapter was short, but it was just the prologue. The first couple of chapters are going to follow the first season of the anime with only minor changes. After that, though, I plan on taking it on a completely different track. As the summary already says this is an AU story, for the most part. As such I decided to up the number of I.S. cores from 467 to 4,670. It won't make much difference right now, but it will later on.

Reviews are welcomed. I accept constructive criticism but no flames please. If you think it necessary, you can PM me the fixes you would make but please mention that in your review.

Edit: 1/4/2015

Several misspelled words were corrected and several words were replaced to allow for better flow of the story.

I hope you enjoy v.1.5.1

Edit: 10/25/2015

Several words that were incorrect or didn't flow right were replaced.

Sorry about not updating. I got back from deployment a month ago and didn't have the drive to continue writing.

I hope you enjoy v.1.5.2