Chapter 25 The Churn
Saturday, July 29th / Russian Command Base
"Are all preparations in place?" The Colonel questioned.
"Yes, all plans appear to be on track." The Investigator reported. "The men have been equipped with the weapons I requested, and have been arranged in three rapid response teams. All we are waiting for is the best moment, when The Butcher and The Devil are separated."
"My team will take The Butcher." A Lieutenant declared. "Our objective will be to eliminate the target with extreme prejudice. Team two will be working with North Korean Agents to attempt to capture The Devil, however, they have orders to eliminate her as well, should it come to pass. Lastly, team three will hold our escape route, in the unlikely possibility of a counterattack."
"…What of the girls? They are civilians, it is possible they know nothing of importance. What are the orders involving them?" The Investigator asked.
"They've spent enough time near the targets to warrant interest. Orders are to capture them as well, or eliminate if nothing else." The Colonel announced.
"…But…they are just civilians-?" The Investigator questioned.
"Those are the orders of The General. Unless you have information that says otherwise, the girls are considered secondary targets." The Colonel reiterated.
"…I see…" The Investigator nodded grimly.
James's "Home" / 10:00 A.M.
"James!" May shouted annoyed, having caught him in his home. She'd stayed up all night helping him build and load his missiles, before she rested her eyes for a few hours. When she had woken up, he was already gone. "That's how you say goodbye? With a creepy message?"
"…" James regarded her lazily, zipping up another bag of his few belongings.
"If you were a human, I thought I might find your brains splattered on the wall." She remarked.
"…Yeah…I may have been a bit too dramatic-" He admitted.
"Yeah no shit. What are you doing?" She demanded.
"…I was gonna…take a trip."
"Where?" She fumed.
"To…anywhere. Yeah, I was going to see the sights…" He lied.
"What sights? James, this planet is a shit hole. You can't ever expose yourself for what you are, and you're not going to get much out of looking at anything, I know you better than that." May reasoned.
"…"
"James, listen. You made a mistake, so what? Sayori isn't mad at you, she isn't even scared of you. She likes you a lot, and if you're overreacting this badly, then I know you like her too."
"…I'm going to call in that favor now."
"…!" May's eyes widened in surprise, while she openly scowled at him.
Taking out a folded paper, James slipped it into her hand, then slung his bags over his shoulder. "Give this to the girls for me…and take care of them."
"…James…"
"This was a mistake, interacting with humans. I belong on a battlefield, and…I sorely miss it." He reminisced painfully. "I know what I am, a Lynx, and nothing more."
"…But…" May tried to counter.
"You can pass as a human, unlike me, so exploit that while you can." He assured her. "You have a place among them. As for me, it would be best for them, if I was as far away as possible."
"So…that's it then? You're just going to run away from your obligations?" May challenged.
"I can't be loyal to those I kill in mistake. I'm hazardous, and it is tiring to hold myself in check at all times. Go, be the friend that I couldn't be for them." James smirked darkly. "Let's meet again, as friends." He grasped her shoulder firmly, stepping past her, and leaving, to find a battlefield to call his home.
"…James…you fucking idiot!" May shouted when he left. "How am I supposed to tell them…!? How am I supposed to deal…with what is to come?" She bowed her head thoughtfully, anxious of the coming days.
One Hour Later
"Two days…" May uttered under her breath. "Two days until they make their declaration…but why? …Fuck." She shook her head with her eyes closed, while she was seated and waiting at one of the shops they frequented.
"May..?" Sayori's voice called out kindly. May looked up to see her and the rest of the club behind her, just as she had requested.
"Hey guys…" May then noticed something that she had often overlooked. "Say Monika…the bow in your hair…?"
"Oh?" Monika reached behind her head, towards the big white bow in her ponytail. "Sayori gave this to me shortly after we met. She said I would look cuter with it, so I've worn it ever since."
"Huh…" May regarded the white bow for a long time, with mild surprise staining her face.
"Is…something wrong May? Why did you call us all here?" Yuri inquired.
"Yeah, there is." May admitted more grimly. "I've got a message for you from James."
"Is he alright!?" Sayori shouted, sweetly concerned. "I haven't heard from him in days, I just want to tell him that it's okay, that he didn't hurt me."
"I know, I know you do. The thing is…" May started, but couldn't finish, hesitant to hurt her friend.
"What is it May? Did something happen to James?" Natsuki wondered.
"No. Nothing happened to him, but I do have news." May figured. "You see, he'd never say it, but I know for a fact that he really cares for all of you, especially you Sayori."
"R-Really?" Sayori blushed at the possibility, trying to hide her smile.
"Yes. Unfortunately, he doesn't believe he should or can be a part of that." The Lynx explained.
"What does that mean?" Monika asked confused.
"…What I mean to say is that James believes he should focus the entirety of his life on combat…and that anything else is a dangerous distraction."
"What are you trying to say, May? Just spill it." Natsuki demanded.
"…" With a sigh, May brought out the folded paper James had given her, handing it to Sayori. "He wanted me to give this to you guys." She said seriously.
Goodbye
For far too long,
I've been away,
From the only place,
I ever called home.
Where I go,
You cannot follow,
And I would not have it,
Any
Other
Way.
There is no place for me other than the battlefield,
To live as I please,
And die a senseless death,
That is who I am,
Not a mere man of flesh,
War,
Is part of my existence.
But I will always miss a friend's honest smile,
Reminding me of what I once was.
I thank you all for that.
"…No…" Sayori whimpered. "That can't…he wants to leave?"
"But…he's our friend!" Natsuki cried out. "What made him want to leave?"
"He thinks…he thinks he's too dangerous to be near us, so he's going to find a war to hide in?" Yuri questioned.
"What about…the obligations and promises he made to us?" Monika wondered. "He made me his commander, you said 'Lynx desire to be in obligation', so what is this?"
"…" May sighed, stressed and overthinking. "I think he truly believes…that the battlefield is where he belongs, and that by staying near you girls, he brings that with him."
"No." Sayori stated, forceful even while spilling tears. "Not again. No!"
"Sayori…I'm sorry, but that is what he believes. He's already left." May countered.
"No! NO!" Sayori shouted, crying, but angry. She stood and ran out of the shop.
"Sayori!" May called out, following after her at a quick pace, the other girls a few steps behind as she exited the shop.
Then something hard pressed into her neck.
Meanwhile / Enroute to Chrome Private Airfield
"You've been really fucking quiet the last few days." James sneered at the demon of his imagination, sitting next to him as it slowly tapped it's claw against the window of the truck.
"…"
"Isn't this what you wanted? For us to leave those girls, and find a war to make our own?" He questioned, his hands flexing on the wheel.
"…"
"It's rather inconvenient when you won't tell me shit, you know?"
"…"
"You're a fucking asshole Strayed. Why didn't you stop me from almost crushing Sayori?" He spat, licking his lips.
"…"
"It's like you…ah fuck!" James clenched his teeth hatefully, tasting the increased probability of violence. "How long do you think we have?"
"Less than a minute." Strayed stated calmly, leaning forward and watching around them. "We have a tail."
"And fuckers to the front."
"Snipers in the building overlooking us."
"We're about to be ambushed, when the light changes to green." James scowled at the red light of the intersection they were at.
"I'll take over from here, just keep your senses open." Strayed commanded, discreetly grabbing a gun. It reasonably expected the ambush to begin when the light changed, as the driver across from them had their attention on them. It would cut them off from the front while the vehicle behind pinned them in place, before they unloaded with whatever weapons they had.
Naturally, Stayed said "Fuck that" and ran the red light right before it changed, gunning it at full speed and into the opposite lane of traffic, intent on ramming the enemy van before they tried anything. Unbuckling it's seatbelt before impact, Strayed made to rapidly exit it's own vehicle.
Gun in it's left hand and knife in it's right, Strayed held down the trigger while the handgun was in full-auto, shooting out both windshields and the other driver. At the moment of collision, it pushed hard and flew out of the windshield, entering the enemy van through it's windshield. On the way in, it extended it's right hand, dragging the blade through the passenger, then rolling to land in the rear bed of the vehicle, where it found six heavily armed men surrounding it.
"Fuck." One of the men muttered. The enemy, each armed with high explosive and long-barreled weapons, could do nothing as it spun with it's blade, taking limbs and heads in mere seconds.
Picking up an RPG from the pile of weapons and limbs, it pointed it out the windshield, blowing up the tail van and probably eight more men, shrugging off the back blast from the weapon as well. Confident that that had scared away the locals, Strayed threw the dead driver out the windshield, sitting and reversing through the lobby of the building it had seen the snipers in.
Picking up a light machine gun in it's right hand and a semi-automatic shotgun in it's left, Strayed kicked the back doors off the van, entering the lobby and immediately coming under fire from a pair of men wielding grenade launchers. Fortunately, it was quick enough to step past the grenades mid-flight and dispatch both enemies, ignoring the explosions to it's back.
Entering the stairwell, it noticed a firehose in a case, and decided to steal it.
. . .
The Lieutenant anxiously waited with his ten men as they quickly tried to reposition their heavy machine guns to watch the stairs and elevator.
It was unprecedented, that not only would The Butcher be able to see through their ambush, but that he would be able to put them on the defensive. The officer thought hard about the warnings and notes The Investigator had compiled for them.
"…The Butcher seems to especially favor asymmetrical attacks, coming from above or the side, even when logic dictates it would be impossible…"
The slightest scuffing of a footstep from above caught The Lieutenant's attention. Damn! He suspected he only had a few seconds at most to implement some desperate plan to even injure that damn, dreadful enemy. He quickly grabbed a large weapon from it's mount and found a suitable hiding spot, around the corner and hidden from sight.
Exceptionally unexpectedly, the sound of a shotgun breaking glass was the next thing anyone heard as Strayed came swinging onto the floor from a window, one hand already blasting away at men with the shotgun, the other holding onto a firehose, letting go and breaking into a run. The initiative on it's side, it emptied the shotgun, wounding most of the men and killing three. Dropping the gun, it switched to the stollen light machinegun, and made quick work of the last seven soldiers, raking them back and forth thoroughly.
Observing it's latest carnage, it noticed how they had been trying to set up the heavy machineguns to cover the stairs and elevator. Walking past them, it saw where they had dragged the mounted guns, from an overwatch position over the intersection it had just been in; with another two mounted anti-tank rifles still pointed down.
…Hang on, why were there three mounts for anti-tank rifles?
A shifting of air from behind was the only warning it got.
One Minute Before
Her attention had been so focused on Sayori that she hadn't noticed the group of men intercepting the other girls and herself.
"M-May…?" Yuri called out worriedly. May could just glance at her, seeing three men, each confidently standing behind the high school girls.
"It will be fine, girls." May stated confidently, yet emotionlessly. She was more concerned about Sayori, who had gained the attention of an entire vehicle, with three grown men approaching her threateningly, but at such a distance she would need every moment to get there in time. Sayori couldn't be heard from where she was, but she was backing up cautiously.
"Come quietly, Devil, and your friends won't get hurt." The man behind her whispered in Korean.
"Bold of you to assume that I'll be going anywhere." May hissed back, utterly defiant, tensing to attack.
It was then that Natsuki suddenly collapsed to her knees, her head pressed to the ground, screaming her throat out while clutching her stomach.
"Natsuki!" Monika shouted worriedly.
"…Ah shit." May realized, just as the man behind her, surprised by the outburst, pulled the trigger of the weapon pressed to her neck. Unfortunately, it was not a gun, but a taser.
The enemy had no way of knowing it, but Lynx, being made with high-density carbon and a hyper-alloy endoskeleton, were extremely conductive, and therefore weak to electricity.
The shock spread through May, burning her nerves. Gritting her teeth painfully, her brain shut off automatically to keep from being damaged, dropping her face first to the ground with a ringing crash, with her eyes still open in a blank stare.
"May!" Yuri cried out, fearful, but with a burning sensation growing in her heart.
"The target is down, moving to capture." The man who tased May spoke into a hidden microphone. He leaned over, grabbing her by the armpits, and tried to lift her.
*CRACK*
His back made the most hideous cracking sound, as multiple vertebrae were dislocated. He hadn't expected the lean, five-foot three-inch girl to weigh more than twice as much as him, and had severely thrown out his back. He cried out, then collapsed, squirming next to May.
"What the…?" The three men grabbing at the other girls paused, confused at the state of their ally. The girls, each corrupted with a fraction of Strayed, chose this moment to strike back.
Natsuki bared her teeth, sucking in the pain, and scurried between the legs of the man behind her. Laying on her back, she kicked at the back of the man's knees, causing him to collapse.
"Ack! Damn!"
Monika spun around, punching her assailant in the throat, then stepping back to counter any moves he made.
"Auu! *cough*!"
Yuri threw her head back, headbutting the man behind herself, then half turning to kick him back.
"Oww! Nnn!"
At this time, May began to wake up. Her entire body was sore, burning from the shock she had received. Convulsing for a second, she jerked sharply, back under her own control. Standing up with her left hand clutching her head, she pulled out a handgun with her right hand, moving quickly to execute the man that had shocked her. "…" Her eye twitched in annoyance as she shot him, then she calmly spun around to shoot the three men engaged in close-quarter-combat with her three friends, each man receiving a quick and accurate bullet to the skull.
The three girls, now not locked in combat, flinched back fearfully from the corpses, having never actually seen dead bodies before. They eyed May with a frightened and horrified expression.
Ignoring them, May turned her attention to Sayori, who was doing good to injure her enemies, but wasn't able to keep them away, as they had completely surrounded her, moving to effectively capture her. The Lynx would have to run at top speed to do anything to help Sayori.
"Capture has failed, team one is down. Team three, move in to execute." May heard from one of the radios of the dead men, just as a van pulled up on the other side of the street, opening it's side door to reveal…an M134 Gatling gun, pointed in her general direction.
FUCK! May cursed silently. Having only a moment to decide, she shifted her focus. Sayori wasn't in immediate danger of dying, but it would take less than a second of attention for the other girls of the club to be gunned down.
"DOWN!" She shouted, opening fire at the van with her handgun as her heels dug into concrete, then asphalt as she ran towards the mounted gun. The gunner's attention squarely on her and not her friends, it opened up, getting a good, second long burst on her, walking the rounds up her leg and across her chest. Undeterred, May continued to pick up speed, moving faster than the gunner could track her, until she slammed her body into the passenger door of the van, lifting it off of two of it's wheels. Bending down, she grabbed the van from the bottom, continuing the momentum her body slam had inflicted, and flipped the van onto it's side. Jumping up and into the open side door, she fell into the van, shooting the gunner and three other men in the vehicle.
Her ears picking up the sound of another van, she tore the gatling gun off of it's mount, making sure the ammo feed and power were still attached, and jumped back up to stand on the side of the van. Holding the gun by the torn mount, she held down the trigger on another unmarked van that was approaching her rapidly, cutting it in half, and reducing the armed men inside into shredded paste.
"T-Team three and four are down! Retreat!"
One Minute Before
Some people had bad days. Sometimes their car broke down, sometimes they lost their job, sometimes their spouse cheated on them.
Strayed's bad day started when a 23mm anti-tank round penetrated it's abdomen. Further adding insult to injury, the round had the indecency to explode, somewhere close to it's stomach.
Owwwwwwwww… Strayed was stunned, hunched over as it held the gaping wound that spilled obscene amounts of blood. Feeling the shrapnel that perforated it's body, it watched the damage report roll in.
/WARNING: MASSIVE PENETRATING TRAUMA
/CRITICAL WARNING: ORGAN DAMAGE DETECTED
/DAMAGE LEVEL:
- STOMACH: 39% INTACT
- RIGHT KIDNEY: 45% INTACT
- RIGHT LUNG: 48% INTACT
- LIVER: 51% INTACT
- LEFT KIDNEY: 64% INTACT
- LEFT LUNG: 72% INTACT
- UPPER INTESTINES: 75%: INTACT
- LOWER INTESTINES: 90% INTACT
/COMBAT EFFICIENCY REDUCED/CURRENTLY 40% AND FALLING
/MASSIVE BLEEDOUT DETECTED
/TIME TO COMPLETE SYSTEM FAILURE: 32 MINUTES
Not exactly having a good time, Strayed looked up to see who had attacked it. A man of militant standing, clutching a broken right arm, with a 23mm anti-tank rifle at his feet.
"Die you fucking butcher." The man smiled through the pain, a sick and pleased glee at watching it bleed. If it had to guess, the man broke his arm firing the large weapon.
"…" Strayed rolled it's eyes tiredly, spitting blood. Humans had a weird habit of making combat unusually personal. In any event, it had to do something about it's stomach. At the moment, it's stomach was behaving like a fuel bladder, with muscles clenching to keep the acid within from spilling out. Not wanting to deal with a possible acid leak, Strayed did the natural thing, and reached deep inside of the wound.
Fortunately, a Lynx's organs were installed like Armored Core equipment, with the intent of being completely modular. With that in mind, Strayed grabbed the connectors at each end of it's stomach, disconnecting them with a quiet click.
/ORGAN/STOMACH: DISCONNECTED FROM DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
"What…the…fuck?!" The man across from it watched in fascinated horror as Strayed removed it's own stomach by hand. Just as it pulled on a wire that allowed it to continue controlling the organ, it threw it, right at the man's face.
/ORGAN/STOMACH: DISCONNECTED
No longer connected to it's body, the eviscerated stomach stopped clenching, allowing the industrial grade acid within to spill free, where it landed on the man's face and in his eyes.
Ignoring the screams as the man's face melted, Strayed began to search through the equipment of the men who had planned to ambush it. It noticed that humans had a tendency to celebrate with alcohol when they completed an objective, and was quite fortunate to find some in a tall, clear bottle.
After another quick search to find a box of matches, it allowed James to take over and begin to administer first aid to themselves.
"Fuck…." He groaned, clutching at the large hole still spilling blood. Taking a large gulp from the alcohol, the fluid worked it's way down, spilling into his body cavity and out of the wound. Bending over near the man with more mush than face, he retrieved his stomach, putting it in one of his pockets, with the intent of fixing it and reinstalling it later.
Before he ate a lit match, he decided to text May to see how she was doing, if she was having nearly as much trouble.
James: "Just got ambushed. Slightly injured. How are you?"
May: [Typing…]
Three Minutes Before
As much fun as wielding the big spinning gun was, her biggest priority was still the safety of her friends. Monika, Natsuki, and Yuri were relatively fine, if slightly disturbed. Sayori on the other hand had just been captured, and May had a mind to do something about it.
Dropping the smoking, spinning gun, she jumped off of the flipped van, her feet cratering the asphalt. Without delay, she accelerated, gaining on the fleeing van, her legs blurred as they pushed her more than twice as fast as any human.
Reaching out, she grasped at the rear doors of the van, forcing them open by bending them out, whilst dragging her legs to try and slow the vehicle. Forcing the doors wide enough to see, she found Sayori, struggling fiercely against her captors as they tried to tie her up, needing three men to keep her down. Good girl. May thought with a smirk.
However, a fourth man had prepared for May's arrival, and pointed an RPG at her face.
"…" Glaring at the man, she wondered if they would be insane enough to fire that weapon in an enclosed space. As it was, they did, and May had to let go of one of the doors to catch the warhead before it pressed itself flat against her head. In doing so, all her weight hung off one door, that, combined with the rocket motors force, broke the door she was holding off the van.
Curling her arms in to roll, while still holding the live anti-tank rocket, she jumped out of the roll, landing on her right leg, then slamming her left leg back on the ground to continue the chase.
*hiss*
Suddenly stumbling, May quickly shifted her weight back onto her right foot. Looking down at her left leg, she noticed thick, blue, hydraulic fluid leaking from it and pooling at her feet.
"No! NO! FUCK!" May screamed. After having it shot by a gatling gun, strained from flipping a vehicle, stressed from running at top speed, and squeezed by dragging her feet behind another moving vehicle, the hydraulic pump in her leg had fractured under the pressure, and was now leaking all over the road. "Dammit!"
As the vehicle holding Sayori sped away, one more van came her way at top speed, intending to run her down in the street. Waiting until the last possible moment, May spun on her good foot, the vehicle missing her by inches. In retaliation, she took the RPG warhead she was still holding, and slammed the shaped charge into the driver side door, detonating it.
The remaining girls had been running to catch up, only to watch as May momentarily disappeared inside an explosion, from which a burning van rolled out of.
"May!" Yuri shouted worriedly, stopping at the sight. Monika, helping a still pained Natsuki along, also stopped, shocked and confused.
Their shock was mitigated when May slowly returned to them, shot, singed, bleeding slightly, and limping severely. Most disconcerting was her emotionless and calm focus, her green eyes burning with intent.
"Oh! May!" Yuri rushed to her bad side, helping her limp along quicker. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." May stressed unamused, unintentionally harsh.
"May…what the fuck just happened?! Where is Sayori!?" Monika demanded.
"It appears we were ambushed, the intent of which was capture or execution." May stated calmly. "As for Sayori…the enemy has succeeded in capturing her." She said more shamefully.
"May…you did all you could. As horrific as it was to watch…you saved our lives." Yuri pleaded, sad but thankful.
"I should have ducked. If I had ducked instead of catching that rocket I might have saved her. FUCK!" May lashed out, punching a car, partially crushing it.
"L-Let's get out of here. You'll be exposed and blamed if we stay here, May." Monika ordered calmly, to which May nodded, following down an alley with Yuri under her shoulder, helping her along.
"Are…are we going to get Sayori back?" Natsuki spoke up, wincing, but able to control the pain that was not hers.
"Of course we will…I just…have to tell James." May hesitated, dreading what he might say or do.
"You said James was leaving though?" Monika questioned, silently hopeful.
"Oh, he'll be back." May promised, retrieving her phone and noticing a message from the said Lynx.
James: "Just got ambushed. Slightly injured. How are you?"
Biting her lip, May hesitantly texted him back, hoping he took the news well.
May: "Sayori was taken."
A pause, then something happened. Colors faded, yet shadows intensified; a silent, haunting screaming that was imperceivable, yet distinctly known; a ravenous desire to inflict unreasonable suffering; a promise of butchery, beyond madness.
The claws of that demon they called Strayed traced their hearts and their hands with sadistic tenderness; it's silent voice screaming a melody of fanatic decree; it's burning, putrid breath chilling them to their core; and it's sweet, toxic blood urging them to move with vigorous, egregious violence.
The girls suppressed a scream in their throats, holding themselves tighter at the foreign desires of vindictive, vengeful rage.
"Wha…" Monika gasped, the shadows at the edge of her vision moving closer with it's gait. "What's happening?"
"…!" Natsuki gasped wide eyed, hearing the slow, steady rhythm of it's twin hearts, hammering on her ears.
"This is…" Yuri gagged, tasting the thick, coppery displeasure of it's blood pooling in her mouth. Despite her best efforts, spitting found only saliva, and did nothing to vanquish the overwhelming smell.
"Oh…" May shook her head while clutching it. "Yeah, they're…so upset they've allowed their feelings to broadcast with considerable range." Sneering, she steeled her convictions. "I'm going to help it. You girls, get to Chrome property and wait there for us. I'll get J-…Strayed to calm down and we'll rescue Sayori."
"May! You're still injured!" Yuri pleaded.
"Superficial damage, I'll manage. Now go, for what it's about to do, Strayed will need all of my help." May promised.
Meanwhile
/CRITICAL WARNING: INTERNAL FIRE DETECTED
/BLEEDOUT HALTED/RECOMMEND AVOIDING COMBAT TO HEAL
/ALERT: PRIMARY AND SECONDARY CONTROL SYNCHRONIZED
/PRIMARY CONTROL OVERRIDE
/COMBAT EFFICIENCY OVERCLOCKED
/ALL SAFETIES AND RESTRICTIONS CANCELED
/UNIT WILL NOT CEASE UNTIL ALL ENEMIES ARE ELIMINATED
/UPDATING OBJECTIVE: REACQUIRE SAYORI
/KILL
/KILL
/KILL
/KILL
/KILL
/KILL
/KILL
/KILL
/KILL
Author's Note: Things will be escalating rapidly from here. It will be glorious and brutal and cruel.
Chapter 30 was finished, now working on 31. It's going to be a fun ride. If you liked reading, let me know and share your thoughts. Thank you!
Lechain asked be an interesting question. It was fun to answer and informative so I will be sharing that here.
Q: "Out of curiosity. How far would kojima radiation spread from an assault armor burst and how long would it last?"
A: "Just eyeballing it from AC4A and VD, not very far. There is a noted inconsistency in that an Assault Armor blast in 4A would leave a lingering area of highly radioactive particles for several seconds, while in VD it does not. To balance this logically, I would say that within the blast zone there is most definitely radiation, and If I had to explain the discrepancy with lore, then an efficiency boost to yield of the blast at the cost of less lingering radiation.
For how long it would last, several seconds (I'm too lazy to boot up AC4A and time it, so lets say 10-20 seconds), while in VD the radiation is only prevalent at significant levels for about a second. If we treat Kojima particles as an element of physics and not just a game mechanic, and using my half-assed, elementary level of observations that I used to create the lore for my story, then Kojima particles will persist semi-permanently at non-damaging levels (to a NEXT) until they've collected enough thermal radiation from their surroundings to decay into a gamma ray burst. I would use that explanation for why James's world in 2450 is always described as cold, even in the middle of a desert.
This is also an explanation of what we see at the end of VD when J starts "Operation Pattern 2". In that scene, we see the heat sinks on the N-WGIX/v open and release enough heat to melt a nearby helicopter wreck. Alternatively, we also see significant damage to the player by way of what has to be Kojima particles (also because the NEXT is leaking green particle effects). What I believe is happening in this scene is the reactor/generator (in this case a cold-fusion type from my lore) has stopped using Kojima particles internally, instead releasing them and allowing the excess waste heat from the reactor to cause their absorption/decay property as a "omni-directional status effect" damage type against an enemy, at the cost of being unable to contain the particles within a Primal Armor sphere. Essentially, trading defense for an alternative offensive vector.
(Note: I am deliberately ignoring the actions and effects of Answerer as that machine produces Kojima particles as a waste product, which makes measuring their effects in regards to Assault Armor and your question invalid.)"
To Lechain: The war was always going to start. The question is going to be how? And, do these characters play a role?
Thanks to Cyba-Fyba for the incredible cover art. Check out their other works or support them on sites such as Reddit, Deviant Art, and Twitter.