Infinite Chaos Chapter 2

L.T: Heya! Sorry it's been a week already, but I don't really have as much time. Gomen! Anyway, let's-a go!

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As the military transporter hovered into touchdown, Ichika and the others marched their battered IS units into the hangar, leaping out as the young corporal from earlier came up the ramp towards them.

"Hope ya don't mind, but I've got some info your boss is gonna want to see." He hefted a briefcase, but didn't elaborate. Ichika shrugged, and the young man sat on a low bench at one end of the aircraft. He then started snoring softly, utterly exhausted from fighting IS No. 017.

Ichika and the girls kept working quietly, trying to let the boy soldier sleep. "Hey, Laura! What are you doing… holy shit!" Ichika gasped, as a second railgun appeared on Schwarzer Regen's other shoulder. "You installed the Panzer Cannon Equalizer!" Laura nodded, and kept working, adding Schwarzer Zweig's enhanced mobility package to counter the speed loss from the second cannon.

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As the carrier touched down on Japanese soil, the crew ran the post-flight checks while the ISs disembarked. CPL. Floodwaters followed them, clutching his case as he stared at the insides of various broken IS that had been recovered. A strange woman with rabbit-ear headphones was mucking around in the guts of a black and green model. When she noticed the group, she bounced over to them, singing, "Hi, hi, are you high? It's everyone's favourite idol, Tabane Shinonono!" when she tried to hug Houki, the younger girl pushed her away.

Shaking her head, Tabane started rabbiting on about 'how they'd brutally damaged their IS units,' and that the repairs were all ready to commence. The poor Ichika just nodded, until an irritable-looking woman with the same hair colour and facial appearance stormed over to him and thwacked the back of his head. "Orimura! I told you not to take stupid risks! If your ISs are broken too much, we'll lose this war!" he winced. "Owwww, Chifuyu, stop-OW!" She hit him again, and then hugged him. "You idiot… you worried me so much!" she whispered fiercely.

Pushing forward, CPL. Floodwaters interrupted. "Sorry, Ma'am, but General Lee sends his regards, along with the blueprints for a new anti-IS weapons system."

Leaving Tabane to coo over her new toy, Ichika and his friends headed for the dining hall, ate quickly, and almost fell into their cots. They'd fought and beaten three rogue IS machines today, and they were running on adrenaline and stubbornness. "Night, guys…" Houki muttered, and a faint, sleepy reply of 'night...' came from the other beds.

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A few hundred metres away, one of the broken IS … twitched. Again, the strange, slithering spasm, then… it lurched into an upright position, the ruined metal of its left arm swinging limp, the massive hole in the right side of the torso, and the dragging right leg… there was no Core in it, but somehow, it was still moving. Behind it, others, all in states of terrible destruction, limped into a loose formation… a hunting pack…

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Ichika and the other pilots were roused form a fitful, dreamless sleep by explosions, gunfire, and pain- and terror-filled screams. Stumbling upright, he stuck his head out of the door, and almost lost it when a flailing blade-arm nearly removed it. Ducking back inside, he gasped, "The broken ISs… they're still moving! All the ones we took down, they're killing people!" Houki sneered, but looked out to see for herself. "Well, crap. He's right!" Rin started shaking. "We're helpless! We haven't got our ISs with us! Tabane's got them in the lab, and it's on the other side of the compound!"

An extremely loud explosion burst around them, and a crash of tearing metal filled the dorms. A smoke-stained and coughing CPL. Paydon Floodwaters rolled in through the door, clutching a strange rifle in his gloved hands. "Hoo, boy! Those pesky things're meaner'n my old man's cat!"

"Corporal! What's ze situation?" Laura snapped, her military past coming to the fore. Paydon pulled off his helmet, panting. "Hell on legs out there, miss! There's a lot of IS onsite, and they've all 'come back to life', for want of a better explanation. We can't stop 'em, not without some better firepower!" he patted the sleek black rifle. Ichika held out his hand. "What is it?" the trooper handed it over, and grinned. "A 'positron plasma-wave reduction cannon', but I just call it a plasma gun! Your resident tech-head just finished making a bunch!"

Ichika aimed out of a window, remembering Charlotte's rifle lesson. He rested on the slow, fragile chest of Rogue IS No. 229, Evening Flare. Pulling the trigger, Ichika grinned manically as the barrel of the rifle spat a green bolt of lightning, which struck the Evening Flare directly. The Flare froze, crashed to the ground, and blew up in a cacophonous blast of heat, sending a fireball up for thirty metres. "NICE!" The Japanese teen hissed. "Did you say there were more of these in the lab?"

Paydon nodded as he donned his bowl helmet. "I got a pistol one, almost as good! You can use the rifle!" Ichika high-fived him, and the pair dashed off, telling the girls to stay put until they were back with weapons. The five women sat in a corner, hoping that the men would be safe. More explosions filled the night, shouts and smashing metal accompanying.

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Half an hour passed, as the shadowy battle raged. The girls were about to give up, when Ichika slid in, dropping IS jewellery on the floor, wearing his bulky gauntlet. The girls snatched up their charms, slipping them on and feeling safer. Paydon dragged a bag in after him, his helmet missing and a scar cutting across one cheek. Pulling it open, he started handing out guns like it was a duck-shoot. "Happy Explosion day, ladies!" Racking the slides, the small force grinned at each other, and charged out of their bolt-hole, firing accurately, turning the tide of battle bringing down IS after undead IS…