And I'm back again! And wow! I got over 9000 views and I already have a following this high? Man, your support really pleases me everyone and I deeply appreciate you all for that. Anyway, I just watched the first episode of RWBY Voume 3 and I have to say that it was AWESOME! Especially that theme music that played. Anyway I like to say it again to you guys. Thank you all for your support, I will always be grateful to it. Now let's get on with this chapter now.
Special Thanks to Jokun, the renegade soldier, alexkehling, RoyalTwinFangs, Rigged Bomb and WriterAdam for their reviews. I'm grateful for it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Armored Core or Gate: Thus The JSDF Fought Here except for my own ocs.
P. S [This will be another important question for a future chapter] What do you think is more beautiful among these two? Eureka Seven's Sakura or Asterisk War's Brand New World?
*** 13th Episode: Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick***
"Kuribayashi, there's a couple large hostiles blocking our path! Take them down for us!" Itami commanded as his group suddenly encountered two 5 meter tall slave giant standing right in their direction.
"Roger Commander!" Kuribayashi replied before she brought out the machinegun of her GA03-SOLARWIND and fires a full burst of rounds from it at the giants obstructing their path. The rounds from the machinegun of Kuribayashi's AC were designed to pierce through the armor plating of other ACs as well as some NEXTs and seeing as these giants were not wearing any kind of protective armor on them except maybe for their tougher than average skin, you can probably guess what obviously happened next when the giants easily got their limbs torn off and their bodies pumped full of so many holes that they almost rival a single block of Swiss for the sheer number of holes they have.
"Kurata, deploy the DRAGOON's drones!" Itami ordered as he swiftly navigated the APC through the tight twists and turns of the city "And Tachibana! I want you to man the machinegun right now!"
"Roger!" Both soldiers replied
***XOXOX***
"Hey douchebags! I brought presents!" Eliza laughs as she unleashed a devastating barrage of micromissiles from her NEXT, Songbird, at a couple of captured ballistas at the wall that were being manned by enemy forces and she watched with ecstatic glee as her micromissiles completely smashed the wall apart and destroyed it along with the people manning it.
"Boo-yah! Now that's what I'm talking about!" Eliza cheerfully exclaimed when Lieutenant Colonel Gravit's image suddenly popped up on her screen.
"You seem to be enjoying this a bit too much Sergeant." Lieutenant Colonel Gravit observed
"Don't worry; I'm not enjoying this on a Surtr Squad level sir." Eliza replied "Unlike them, I still have standards."
"Glad to know." Gravit said when he suddenly noticed on his screen three of the remaining brigands on the wall are staring right at them, their feet frozen in fear while their faces were completely petrified into an expression that details both shock and terror.
"Hey Sergeant, you forgot to give these guys a present!" Gravit informed Eliza who grinned back at him in response.
"Oh, did I?"
Songbird turned its face around in order to directly look at the brigands' faces which have now instantly turned deathly white in alarm as they saw Songbird's strange weapon pointing right at them.
"Don't worry; I have at least a few thousand more to spare." Eliza chuckled as her six barreled, GA made gatling gun began to spin rapidly before it unleashed a deadly storm of hot lead at its targets.
Two of the unlucky bandits instantly got shredded into a pile of bloody strips by the lethal burst of Songbird's gatling gun but the third, who manage to react just in time when he saw the six barreled weapon spin, instinctively jumped out of the way and avoided its deadly fire. Unfortunately for him, that is where his luck ends as he actually ends up landing right on top of Rory's halberd of all things, its sharp point swiftly piercing right through his armor and impaling him right on his heart.
The bandit gasps before he threw up his blood directly on the face of the demigoddess below.
"This… is not… war! This can't… be called… war!" The bandit gasped as his blood drips down the blade of Rory's halberd.
Looking down at the blood stained faced of the apostle of Emroy herself; the bandit began crying out in fear, anger, rage and humiliation, screaming "This can't be called a war! Don't you agree? Priestess of Emroy?!"
Rory didn't say anything as she simply slams her halberd down on the ground and bisects the bandit impaled on its point.
"Bitch!" A bandit screamed at her as he tried to bring his axe down on her but the demigoddess simply caught its blade barehanded when it began to descend upon her and she smirked.
"Nice try but it's not enough." Rory chuckled before she cleaves the man in half with one swift swing of her halberd and walked past him as his torso slowly slid down his body.
Seeing the demigoddess approach them, the other bandits tried to fight back by arranging themselves into a tortoise formation with their shields and spears in front however, their efforts only made to amuse Rory even more as she dashed right at them, dodging underneath the thrusts of their spears before she spins around and swung her ludicrously heavy halberd at their side, decapitating several of them while smashing apart the rest from their formation.
Two groups of at least a dozen bandits each tried to attack Rory again by flanking her at her sides but before they do, a small swarm of half a dozen combat drones suddenly appeared from the sky and began firing upon one of the bandit groups with the machineguns installed upon them while a large rocket flew from out of nowhere and blasted the second group into pieces in a single explosion.
When Rory looked back, she saw that it was none other than Kuribayashi's GA03-SOLARWIND holding its bazooka in one arm and its machinegun in the other followed by an APC that has Takeru mounting its own single machinegun.
"Tachibana!" Itami shouted as he saw a couple of archers on the wall beginning to nock their arrows.
"Right!" Tachibana replied before he begins firing the APC's machinegun at the hostiles standing at the wall, mowing them quickly and watching their lifeless, bullet ridden corpses fall down as a result.
There are still more bandits remaining in this area and the rest of them are trying to regroup themselves together when suddenly, a couple NEXTs flew through the smoke enveloping the eastern gate and situated themselves above the remaining targets.
"1st Lieutenant Itami, this is Dragonfly and Sky Pirate." One of the NEXT pilots announced through the comms system "We're about to bomb this area back to the Stone Age so I advise you and your companions to leave before we do so. We will be giving you 10 seconds to get out of our firing range."
Itami swore, immediately yelling at Kurata to take the driver's seat before he jumps out of the APC to quickly pick Rory up.
"10… 9… 8… 7… 6…"
After grabbing Rory up in his arms (and accidentally grasping her chest in his hand), Itami quickly dashed towards the APC and jumped right in to its open door before Kurata swiftly drives the vehicle out of the two NEXTs' range followed by Kuribayashi and her GA03-SOLARWIND.
"5… 4… 3… 2… 1…"
After the two NEXTs finished counting down, immediately the missile hatches on their shoulders opened and they began firing an unnecessarily large missile salvo at their targets resulting in explosion after explosion rocking the entire area.
"Man, these guys are even more insane than Surtr Squad themselves!" Kuribayashi remarked as she watched the bombardment from her screen
After draining their entire ordnance on their attack and once the gigantic smoke cloud cleared, the destruction that could be seen in the aftermath was in no short of overkill in appearance as not only were the bodies of the bandits badly burned and torn apart by the explosions the two NEXTs caused, the bombardment they have initiated has also blown large chunks of the ground off as well as completely obliterating the entire eastern gate into pieces.
"Enemy neutralized!" The two NEXT pilots proudly declared
Nearby, Princess Pina and Hamilton looked on in pure horror at what they have just witnessed.
"M-Monsters…" Hamilton stammered weakly as she could feel her legs tremble deeply in fear at the fierce display of strength the UCA's forces have just shown to them.
"Iron giants that can fly?" Pina mumbled as she could see the two NEXTs descend to the groud "What are those things?"
Seeing the two NEXTs approach each other and give a high five to each other, Pina shudders as she imagined what would have happened if these metal giants have attacked Italica instead.
"Absolute violence that no human can withstand. The power to crush everything, a power that denies pride and honor in an instant. Is this the goddess mocking us? About how frail, insignificant and worthless we humans are?"
Later soon, numerous F21-C Stork helicopters began descending all over Italica and dropping off dozens of infantry battalions to help treat the wounded, remove scattered debris and to round off any surviving stragglers in the city. Assisting the battalions are the over one hundred Normal ACs they have previously arrived with along with the NEXTs of Valkyrie Squad and those of Itami's group.
One of the soldiers was approached by a couple of civilians who thanked them for saving their city and asked them what army they belong to and the soldier simply replied with the following statement.
"We are the United Corporate Alliance or UCA for short."
"UCA?" The civilians repeated the name "We have never seen anyone like you."
The soldier grinned at them "Sir, you haven't seen everything about us yet."
***XOXOX***
"It's over. The brigands have been all wiped out." Princess Pina mumbled
"Yes. We were victorious." Hamilton agreed with her
"No. We are not." Pina disagreed as her hands visibly tighten themselves "It was the Priestess of Emroy, Rory and the UCA who have won. Not us. Not me. Worse, the UCA is actually the enemy who is currently occupying the holy hill of Alnus."
Hamilton's eyes grew wide with shock and surprise just as the princess continued speaking.
"In intending to save Italica, have I not called in a far more terrifying force?" Pina asks "Those flying metal giants and those powerful magics they use to wipe out the brigands in a single moment… If they were ever turned towards Italica… then both I and Countess Myui would be quickly turned into prisoners and one of the Empire's most important agricultural areas would fall into enemy hands. And the people might even welcome them with cheers and open arms."
"That's not true-" Hamilton began but Pina quickly cuts her off.
"Are you sure? They were the ones who truly saved the city." Pina reluctantly pointed out, almost hating herself for doing so "If they were to demand our surrender, I might even respond by falling to my knees and beg for their mercy while I kiss the soles of their feet."
***XOXOX***
Later on more troops from the UCA's base on Alnus arrived at Italica twelve minutes later, carrying with them are dozens of supplies and MTs to help with the repairs and rebuilding of the city. What's surprising with this group however was that Thermidor and CEO Akira Yanagida themselves have decided to come along with this group to the city in order to establish negotiations with the ruler in charge, a move that deeply surprised Itami himself as he never expected some of the head honchos to make the negotiations themselves.
For the area of negotiations, both the UCA and Princess Pina agreed that the most suitable place to establish it would be at Countess Myui's keep and Princess also allowed the UCA's group to bring as many armed guards as they want albeit she allowed so reluctantly (though seeing as the UCA here has shown her that they have a bigger stick than her, she doesn't really have much of a choice).
"We are grateful for your soldiers for saving Italica," Hamilton read out aloud from the scroll she is holding which is containing the details of their negotiations "and would like to negotiate your compensation."
Yanagida smiled smugly while Thermidor looks over at Itami's face and notices the large black eye on the right side of his face.
Thermidor raised his eyebrows and asks "What happened to you?"
"Combat injury." Itami sighed
"The 2nd article, the safety of a delegation and its expenses, will be taken care of in accordance with Imperial protocol." Hamilton continued "And the 3rd article, trading rights for the UCA's forces, poses no problem either. However, I would like you to understand that the rights to the prisoners lie with us."
Yanagida nods "No worries. The UCA understands that manual labor is needed in order to rebuild Italica completely. However, we would like to be assured that the prisoners will be treated as humanely as possibly."
Lelei translated what Yanagida said to the other negotiation party.
"Humanely?" Hamilton asks in confusion "How do you define that exactly?"
"To the UCA, humanely means that you would treat a person well as you would treat a friend, relative or acquaintance." Lelei answered
"What?!" Hamilton exclaimed in shock "You can't be serious, treating these people who just casually slaughtered hundreds of Italica's civilians-"
"Those are their rules." Lelei interrupted "They won't settle for anything less."
Thermidor silently nods in approval. Despite the brutal society of their military, treating prisoners humanely was one of the very few things he knows that separates them from the complete savagery of the Empire they are facing.
Hamilton sighed as she relented herself from the matter "Very well. That settles the matter of the treatment of the prisoners. All that's left is the military withdrawal and the treaty period."
Lelei nods "We have no problem with how it was written."
***Later***
"So how did the negotiations go?" Gray as Princess Pina as she reclined her back on the wall of the corridor.
"They took several prisoners and asked us to take care of all the diplomatic delegations' security and expenses plus a release from all trade taxes in Italica." Pina answered
"Those are rather small demands for a victor." Gray remarked "So will they occupy the city?"
Pina shook her head "No. They said that they will be withdrawing immediately and that they will not place any of their forces inside the city."
Gray's eyes went wide in surprise "Then they barely gained anything out from this! I've never heard of an army that would accept such conditions."
"Yes." Pina agreed "To make them give up the natural rights of a victor would take incredible negotiating skills. I would love to know what kind of magic Hamilton used to make them agree to such conditions."
***XOXOX***
"So, we are really withdrawing our forces here then?" Thermidor asks as he and Yanagida were slowly being escorted into one of the F21-C Storks by their own troops.
"Yes." Yanagida confirmed "We also agreed not to place any of our forces inside the city itself… however, there is nothing in the deal that said we can't place any above the city itself."
Thermidor's eyes went wide "You didn't…"
Yanagida smiled smugly "Oh I did. And I already talked with the League and several of the other independent corporations. They all agreed to place one of the Sol Dios Orbital Cannons we have created in this world above Italica's airspace."
"Yanagida, you sneaky, little bastard…" Thermidor remarked "I knew I should have been suspicious when you casually agreed to such a disadvantageous deal."
"And you are right Thermidor." Yanagida chuckled "Well what can I say? I'm a businessman and I would never agree to such a deal unless I know I'm always one step away from my rivals."
"Remind me to never ever play chess with you Yanagida."
Yanagida gave out a hearty laugh "Oh don't worry Thermidor, I'm pretty sure you are quite devious yourself considering you played both the sides of ORCA and the League before in order to further your own schemes."
Thermidor smiled "Guilty as charged. So, what are we planning to do next Yanagida? After all, according to our intelligence reports, this city is basically the heart of their agricultural system and by placing a single Sol Dios Cannon above it in orbit; we have secretly taken their entire food supply hostage without them even knowing it."
"Have patience my friend." Yanagida smirks as he adjusted the glasses on his face "This is all just a step to bring us ever closer to our goal of completely subjugating this entire world under our control."
***End Of Episode***
***Encyclopedia***
Sol Dios Orbital Cannons – Normally a weapon used to be equipped to Arms Forts, the Sol Dios Orbital Cannons are an upgraded version of the original destructive weapon. Designed to function in low to medium orbit without being mounted to any Arms Fort, the Sol Dios Orbital Cannons shares some similar technologies with the Assault Cells, namely their power output which allows them to stay for an extensive period in orbit, usually five years or more. Basically, these cannons function as an extremely more powerful version of the Assault Cells the League has created. However, only four of these weapons have so far been created with two that were secretly constructed inside the Special Area at the UCA's discretion due to the huge stigma the Assault Cells have placed on orbital weapons, making people very cautious and hesitant about using them again out of fear that the cannons will be used like how the corporations had used the Assault Cells. However despite this as well as dozens of protests coming mostly from the Vox Populi and their associates, the sheer military advantage that orbital weapons can provide was simply too big to ignore and both ORCA and the League continues to use these weapons until this very day.