Chapter 29 Drown in Despair
Moscow, Russia / 2029
They failed.
Despite their best efforts, in spite of the horrific sacrifice, everything they had fought for was in vain. Sayori lay cold, and dead, a little too late.
Filled with agonizing anguish and bitter hate, their blood boiling in ravenous rage, an admittedly insane thought had filled their minds.
A world that could deprive itself of someone as sweet and wonderful as Sayori…did not deserve to continue existing.
Which was partly why Commander White stood in the turret of a main battle tank, the treads crushing the corpses of the feeble resistance in her path.
There was no denying the insanity of what they were doing. The answer they sought was beyond madness. Their goal horrific…and easily obtainable.
The extinction of all human life on Earth.
To this end they had given everything. Their nationality was cast aside, all familiar ties cut, their lives in relative peace broken forever. Their names, their souls, their very flesh given freely and wholeheartedly to the darkest path they could possibly seek.
Commander White had had little issue in convincing her closest friends of the plan, and the Lynx had devoted themselves to her command without hesitation. With but the faintest glance of scrutiny it was clear that their world had festered with institutions propagating systems of systemic slavery by any word but. Be it religion or government or economics, that were for far too long, controlling the destiny of mankind and breeding generation after generation of obedient and unquestioning cattle for profitable slaughter. It had to end, by extreme measures if necessary.
The only one that had resisted this plan, who had sought to defend the human race as something worth saving, had been the A.I. by the name of 09. It believed that humanity was capable of change, that there might still be hope, that genocide was a step too far. It had only acquiesced on the condition that it be allowed to restart humanity in it's own image, under it's guidance…once ORCA was done wiping it out first.
For three years they had hidden, faking their own deaths so that they might focus all their attention to this plan. For three years they had been building unmanned systems and selling them to the world, recreating entire industries so that they could operate unmanned from ore to finished products. For three years they waited anxiously, waiting for the moment to strike.
In the wake of ORCA's attack, the stability of the world had eroded, as ORCA could not be found and retaliated against. Nations invested massively in their militaries, crippling their economies and deepening divisions. The saber-rattling grew more desperate and certain, until war could no longer be denied.
The Third World War lasted less than an hour, before ORCA made it's second and final declaration.
"Commander White of ORCA here. Three years ago, we declared war on the world, seeking but one objective to complete. We failed. As promised, we will be finishing what we started. From this moment on, humanity has no future. We will end it, by any means necessary. Goodbye."
Their first action was not immediately obvious, not until the sky fell. With the smallest of movements, every satellite in Earth's orbit changed course, colliding one after another, cutting off space by way of Kessler Syndrome, the debris of which continued to fall for weeks as a constant stream of shooting stars. Simultaneously, nuclear stealth missiles targeted critical data centers and undersea cables, cutting off global communications.
Before the communications blackout, an order was sent to the largely autonomous armies of the most prosperous nations, to turn their weapons against humanity. The next most logical step would have been to turn their nuclear weapons back on themselves, but ORCA had other plans.
They wanted the world to know it was dying, slowly and methodically.
Their first target had been Japan, based on proximity; their A.I. weapons quickly smashing any organized resistance, leaving the way open to the next step. They did not eliminate humans with weapons or with camps, they let the machines consume them.
Armies of heavy mining equipment, fifteen-thousand-ton vehicles normally used to mine mountains, were turned against cities with their citizens trapped inside, reprocessing the once massive cities of Japan into raw material for the A.I. war machine.
No human lived in Japan within a year.
Self-replicating war factories sprouted up on the strip-mined foundation, continuing to produce more weapons, their appetite beginning to flatten the string of islands that had once been a nation.
Their next target had been China. After first blasting a nuclear beachhead onto the shore, wave after wave of unmanned weapons followed by heavy excavators, following a similar pattern; killing, consuming, and reproducing. Their slow and methodical march took three years to eliminate the superpower.
It was now twelve years since Sayori's death. Commander White led a massive, armored push by A.I. tanks, entering Red Square, the Kremlin already burning. To her front, the last defenders of Moscow; to her back, a million A.I. tanks and a million more, and three billion humans, dead.
Slowly and surely, the tanks and Muscle Tracers in her formation surged forward, indifferent to losses and needing only fuel and bullets. Each machine was a combat-oriented extension of the A.I. 09, dutifully following the will of it's masters and creator.
Raising a clawed fist, she brought the entire advance to a halt, allowing the few exhausted and besieged defenders one last look upon their demise. Snapping her arm straight out sideways, it began anew, cannon and machinegun and pulse laser fire mowing down those who dared to oppose their will. In the next few minutes, hundreds were killed, gunned downed, their feeble fortifications crushed against the unending tide.
At the steps of the Kremlin, the armored assault halted once more, with only a few defenders left standing, confused. From their backs, an unnaturally tall figure walked forward, dragging something in her wake.
Smiling darkly, Commander White pushed herself out of the turret to walk the rest of the way. Her J-shaped heels of carbon-fiber met the ground first, a set of prosthetic "blade runners" that were faster than human legs. Standing at seven feet tall, she had also undergone many changes, in order to facilitate her crusade. Her arms, which had been cut off at the shoulder, now extended to match her height with clawed, prosthetic hands. She wore a black and white trench coat with an emblem of ORCA sewn into her sleeve, and a white helmet over her head, which extended over her face with a shielded mask. A multitude of optics and lenses over the mask giving her the look of a six eyed demon with glowing green eyes.
The sight of the tall, cybernetic woman gave pause to the last defenders, who huddled together at her approach, whispering fearfully.
"My god…is that…Commander White?"
"She's not human…"
"No human could have committed the crimes she has…"
"We're going to die here…"
"What are you doing! Shoot her! She's exposed! Shoot her and end mankind's misery!"
"Hey…what's that on her arm?"
As soon as the first man had leveled a weapon on her, she moved. With terrible speed and graceful agility, she closed the distance, until she stood over the first man.
"Shit! She's fast!"
Fully engrossed into combat, into war, she had inherited Strayed's affinity for blades. Mounted on her left wrist in a foldable mount was a thick, square broadsword, wielded as a "physical blade" as opposed to a laser blade. Slashing with the blade she decapitated the man beneath her.
"DAMN YOU WHITE!" A woman shouted just a few steps away. Keeping the momentum of her slash, White spun left, pacing backwards as the physical blade flipped to be pointed down past her elbow. Thrusting her elbow backwards, she pierced the human woman's heart.
"Maria! NO!" A man shouted. Pulling her blade from the woman's corpse, White transitioned the blade to be pointed forward again. Spinning right while pacing forward, she angled a downward slash, which cut the man in half from shoulder to hip.
"Someone! Help! SHOOT HER!" The last man in this first squad shouted while holding down the trigger of his AK rifle. Seeming to leap between the bullets, White was on him in an instant, cutting off his arms and thrusting the blade through his stomach.
"Everyone! Open fire!" The officer ordered the second squad. In response, White lifted the man she had just stabbed, using his body as a shield. From her right arm she pointed a small caliber gatling gun, mounted below her wrist, and used it the cut down two more men with rapid and accurate burst while running forward.
A step away from her next target, White swung her blade arm out left, removing the body she was carrying, and transitioned the blade to it's reverse form. Leading an elbow strike to the woman in front of her, the reverse mounted blade lobbed her head off, then switched back to it's forward position.
"No no NO!" The last non-officer shouted as White descended upon him. Taking her time with the kill, she gave five, rapid and powerful thrusts with the blade through his chest, before grasping his head in her clawed right hand, and squeezing his cranium to mush.
"Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!" The last soldier, an officer, shouted as he fired a handgun, the rounds bouncing off or being stopped by White's armor. As he was reloading his weapon, he was interrupted by a thick blade that burst out of his chest, lifting him nearly nine feet into the air. The arm he was attached to then flung down, his body crumpled at the feet of another cybernetic woman with a black, red trimmed helmet and glowing red optics.
"Lieutenant Red, have you finished your mission?" Commander White asked the shorter cyborg.
"Affirmative, I have captured the target, and terminated all other humans in my path." Lieutenant Red answered, dragging a man towards the feet of Commander White, his right arm missing from the elbow down.
Nodding to her subordinate, Commander White turned to the man at her feet. "We meet at last, Mr. President."
"…Fuck you…" The President muttered to the ground.
"You will look at the commander when she is addressing you!" Lieutenant Red shouted, her claws piercing the President's shoulder, picking him up and dropping him in a sitting position.
"NGGG! You monsters! We fired every bullet, every bomb, every nuke we had, and it didn't even slow you down! Wave after wave of your damn machines cutting our people down, for what?! FOR WHAT?!" The President demanded.
"You have-!" Red began to shout, but was stopped by White's raised fist.
"Twelve years ago, your nation set about to subjugate portions of Japan. We could have ignored that." Commander White explained. "But one man, one mercenary, did his job a little too well in opposing you, and you sought to punish him, by taking away the one thing he loved, the one thing we all loved. A sweet and innocent girl, named Sayori."
"You…you committed genocide for a single life?!" The President shouted in rage.
"Yes. We seek to make a better world, a world without sin, where girls as sweet and wonderful as Sayori won't be sacrificed on the altar of men's ambition. That is my Answer."
"You're insane! You'd wipe out the human race so you could live in your fantasy of a better world?!"
"We're not going to live there…there's no place for us there, just as there is no place for this current humanity."
"This…current?" The President questioned.
"Yes…you see, unlike us, the machines mourn. The A.I. in our command catalogs and memorizes every human who dies in this path we've taken. When we are finished, it wants to restart the human race, guided by principles it hopes will prevent…such circumstances such as where we find ourselves now." White explained.
"You won't succeed, someone will stop you! NATO or America-" The President shouted, then stopped, as White giggled.
"NATO and America are fractured! The E.U. is broken, turned against itself and blind to our advance. And America fights a bloody civil war after being driven to insanity by it's politicians and powerful elite. America has been divided, not just by political party versus political party, but state versus state, neighbor versus neighbor, and brother versus brother. It has collapsed under the weight of it's own festering filth. We will wipe them out last." Commander White promised.
"Then…is there truly no hope for mankind?" The President questioned despondently.
"Look upon what you have wrought, and you tell me." Grabbing him by the head, she forced him to look up, out into Red Square.
Row after row of unmanned battle tanks and bipedal Muscle Tracers, scarred and burned and tattered by war, their treads still slick in human blood, waiting, and watching with optics locked onto the last leader of The Russian Federation. A monstrosity of steel, a twenty-thousand-ton battle tank with a triple barreled gatling cannon, and treads spaced forty meters wide, sat among the formation. Another tank pulling to the front of the formation, appearing as two tank hulls that had been attached front to back, with a tall, rear mounted turret with externally mounted weapons, a Prototype Armored Core.
Dismounting the prototype was two distinctly female figures: the first, a normal girl with long green hair, pulling a wire out of her neck; and the other, a cyborg seven-and-a-half feet tall with glowing purple optics.
"This war, this path, this bitter obligation we have will wash over this world, setting it free." White began. As she said this, two forms of thunder were heard. The skies already black with smoke, were further obscured by wave after wave of unmanned aircraft passing overhead as a solid mass. Flying at the speed of war, they went forth to bomb Europe back to the stone age.
To the side, an uncannily humanoid machine, black and white and ten meters tall, landed with plasma thrusters roaring downward.
"We will not rest, we will not stop, not until this world dies screaming her name!" Commander White shouted, plunging her claws into The President's chest. He gagged on his own blood, clutching her wrist until she pulled it out, his heart torn out and discarded.
Ignoring the dying man, White turned to greet the rest of her subordinates.
"Lieutenant Violet, Lynx Greenfield."
"Sir!" The girls saluted her with a prompt shout.
"The encirclement of Moscow is complete; nothing is getting out alive." Violet answered.
"I can confirm all resistance in the city has fallen, the city is ours." May nodded.
"Excellent." White turned her attention inward, to the neural uplink she had to ORCA's command network. "09, you are cleared to begin reprocessing the city of Moscow, build a Tower over the remains."
/CONFIRMED: BEGINNING REPROCESSING
All at once, all tanks but the prototype core and White's personal command tank turned around, clearing the way for excavators to begin tearing the city apart, adding it's mass to the unstoppable war machine.
"Lynx Strayed." White turned to the NEXT that had joined them. "Report on your mission, did you destroy humanity's centers of faith?"
"Confirmed; The Vatican, Jerusalem, and Mecca have been completely annihilated. Nothing remains." Strayed, who had gone by no other name since Sayori's death, answered calmly.
"Good, then we move forward." White commanded. "There are still five continents that must be wiped clean of humanity. For Sayori!"
/FOR SAYORI
"For Sayori!"
"For Sayori!"
"For Sayori!"
"For Sayori."
Pacific Ocean - AMCS Anatolia / August 1st, 2017
Shaking herself awake, Monika shot up in bed, panting heavily. The horrors of her nightmare still fresh in her mind, she winced painfully, forcing herself not to cry again. She'd already cried harder than she ever had before, her face still caked in dried tears and blood.
Pushing herself out of bed, she unsteadily made her way to the head, leaning over the sink as she fought the bile rising in her throat. Cleaning her face in the sink, she looked up, seeing not the face of a young and attractive girl, but of a gaunt and pale ghoul, with bloodshot, emerald-green eyes.
Her own face no longer, this was the face of Commander White, the terrorist leader of ORCA, who had declared war against the whole world, and who would not hesitate to wipe it out if she couldn't save Sayori.
Just the thought of the kind and forgiving girl, the closest friend she had, had filled her with such unimaginable rage. Sayori was not with them, she was a prisoner still, scared and alone, her life on the line. There was no price she would not pay to see her safe again.
Disgusted at her own selfish anguish, Monika raised her fist and smashed the mirror, fracturing the image of the female demon. The pain as her knuckles scaped against broken glass was sobering, waking her fully.
Letting her new wounds bleed a trail in her wake, she left her cabin and made her way outside, to a walkway on the starboard side of the bridge. The morning air was frigid, biting into her skin, except on her knuckle, where warm blood continued to flow. The only sounds to be heard was the quiet thunder of machinery within the ship, hammering with a steady rhythm, and the soft crash of waves against the hull of the ship below.
The sunrise brought no warmth and insignificant light, the perfect kind for the beginning of the end. It was to be the first sunrise on a world destined to die slowly, condemned by the very girl who stood watching it.
She couldn't stop the tear that fell.
Something else was wrong, a pain she could not name, not until she tried to grab the railing from too far away. Looking down at her palms, her arms aching with length and strength she did not possess, a phantom pain of the mechanical limbs of her dreams.
Was that to be her fate if she couldn't save Sayori? To be a mechanical monstrosity, delighted by the long line of corpses in her wake? Would her name be the last remembered as she ended the human race?
Grabbing the railing properly, her hands gasping the cold metal tightly, she hoped it would not come to that.
Hearing the sound of boots approaching, Monika turned left and saw the Lynx, James and May.
"Commander, repairs of the NEXT are well underway. We are almost finished installing the reactor, as well as several other pieces of equipment we believe we will use to effectuate Sayori's rescue." May informed her professionally. Neither of their expressions showing any remorse for the lives they helped take the previous day, the terrors they had unleashed.
Monika had been more than aware of what she had done. Every news channel and social media posting showing in exquisite detail the pain and death she had wrought. Destruction on a scale never before experienced, whole cities torn apart, and corpses mangled and crushed and burned and piled so terribly high.
As well, the first cracks and divisions that would lead to war had already surfaced. Each nation attacked claiming self-importance, their own dead citizens as nothing more than proof that they had been the "real" attack. The U.K., France, and Russia claimed they were the victims of cultural destruction for the loss of historical cities; the United States of social terrorism as Hollywood had been leveled; Pakistan as a military target as an airbase had been caught in the blast; and China and India simply for their place on the world stage as nations having suffered a nuclear attack.
All pretenses of alliance had been shattered in the wake of an attack that cut across lines of governance, of religion, and of economics. None of the notions that had separated the nuclear powers meant anything in the face of an enemy such as ORCA, a power not of land, people, or ideology, but only of change.
ORCA was meant to change the world, even if only for a single life. It was only a power of five people, yet had proven capable of bringing the world to it's knees, and that made it the most terrifying group to ever exist.
"I'm sorry…" Monika uttered softly, looking to James.
"…"
"I'm sorry…that I called you a monster." She clarified. "I couldn't imagine what could ever bring someone to kill as many as you have…but now…now I'm just the same as you, killing so many people…too many…I don't have the right to criticize you anymore, now that I am a monster too."
A better man would have assured her that she wasn't a monster, that what they were doing must and would save Sayori's life, that the lives they had sacrificed would not be in vain.
Strayed was neither "better", or a "man".
With unprompted violence, Strayed's left hand wrapped itself around Monika's throat, lifting her straight up. Knowing there was nothing she could do to stop it, Monika didn't struggle, her arms limp at her sides, as her eyes were forced to stare into black and orange orbs, burning with malice.
"How…dare…you…" Strayed uttered loudly and hatefully. "How dare you try and compare yourself to we Lynx, who do not hesitate to do what must be done. You will never find a Lynx who mourns for those they kill, not as you continue to do. We gave everything to be what we are now, and if that just happens to be monsters beyond comprehension, so be it, it is a fate we embrace. So long as you continue to mourn, so long as you have not given yourself to a life on the battlefield, then you are nothing like us."
Dropping her, Monika fell on her back, coughing and clutching her throat. Her right hand was then caught, and she was pulled to her feet by James.
"I will say..." James began while picking grains of glass out of her wound, causing her to wince while she listened. "It is not that we kill too many…no, it's that we can never kill enough." Turning her hand palm up, he reached into his coat, placing a soft object in her palm, then closed her hand. "Never forget why you started on this path, Monika."
"…!" Mildly surprised that he called her by name, she opened her palm, seeing Sayori's red bow. Gasping, she closed both her hands over the bow, holding it close to her heart.
"…" James half-nodded, turning to walk away.
"I can hear it…"
"Mmm? What is it Monika?" May inquired.
"I can hear…screaming." Monika looked up hesitantly. "The people I've killed…their suffering…I can still hear it." She stressed painfully and quietly.
"Ah…we don't really talk about that…" May half-smiled. "But I know what you are talking about." Swaying her head reluctantly, she then said, "They say that when you have committed a sin that is beyond absolution, it will mark you forever."
"Can you hear it too, James?" Monika quietly asked, wondering if any part of him could ever be human.
"…" Sighing, James turned around, meeting her gaze. "I have always heard it."
. . .
A television playing in the crew lounge continued to broadcast imagines of what they had done. A one-sided state of war existed in the world, one that could not be resolved. Seven cities and one million people were gone, wiped from the Earth in the most horrifying act of terror so far.
Feeling numb and sick, Natsuki and Yuri avoided their rations while watching the screen, playing scenes of their heinous sin.
Strained yet motivated, Monika entered, followed by her Lynx escorts. She leaned against the table the other girls were at, while her Lynx stood guard to her back.
"Monika…is this some kind of nightmare?" Natsuki wondered. "This…what we've done…"
"This is worse than I ever could have imagined…so many people…dead…because of us…" Yuri softly cried.
"If we could have done it any other way, I would have." Monika stated. "But we have not finished, we are not done with this world yet."
"Monika…" Natsuki muttered.
"If we stop now then this world will die for nothing. We can have time to mourn after Sayori is safe." Monika announced. "I know this has been the most terrible last few days, but there is nothing we can do about what has happened. The only path we can afford is the one where she is safe and sound. Anything less…" Monika hesitated. "I could not bear the thought that we might fail, I won't allow such an outcome."
"…So what do we do?" Natsuki questioned.
"The only path before us is this. Destroy everything if it stands in our way, and make sure our best friend is safe." Monika ordered, placing Sayori's bow on the table. "That is my Answer. For Sayori."
"For Sayori!" Both Lynx shouted in confirmation.
Momentarily taken aback, Natsuki and Yuri shared a surprised look. Knowing what Monika said was true though, they each hardened their expressions, nodding to each other.
"For Sayori!"
"For Sayori!"
Meanwhile / Iturup Island - Cape Triokhpaly Airbase - Stockade
The room was dark and cold, with an overly bright light shining down on her. Her blue, overall dress was dirty and sweaty after wearing it for three days straight, itching her skin. Sitting across the table from her was The Investigator, his expression soft and curious.
"What kind of weapons did your friend's have access to?"
"…"
"You hurt several men when you were being captured. Did you have training before you met James, or did he train you?"
"…"
"What exactly does ORCA mean?"
"…"
"Do you know what happened yesterday?"
"…No?" Sayori looked up at that question, worried but curious.
Placing his phone for her to see, he swiped through several images, showing the aftermath of the previous day.
"W-What happened…?" Sayori hesitantly asked.
"I believe your friend's declared war on your behalf. This is a transcript of their message."
"That's…" Although being out of the loop, she recognized ORCA and their methods. Realizing what must have happened, she began to cry anew. "No…no…they shouldn't have…all those innocent people…" She wept, covering her eyes. "They shouldn't have done that for me…they shouldn't have…"
A knock at the door alerted The Investigator, who had been quietly watching the young girl cry.
"Sir, The General wants to have a word with you." The soldier who knocked informed. Nodding to him, The Investigator left the room, leaving Sayori alone. He exited the holding cell on the base and walked to the command center.
There was a certain controlled chaos, due in no small part to the actions of ORCA. Everywhere in the world, analyst and officials working for their respective nations were busy, investigating anything that could lead back to ORCA.
ORCA's attack had quietly told the world three things.
One: They had access to what was probably the most advanced computer system in the world, as it was reported that every computer with capacity to connect to the internet had been infected with that message.
Two: They had produced the most advanced nuclear weapons ever conceived. Considering that there had been no intelligence of such a group forming, it was likely very small, and the only kind of weapon that could simultaneously and discreetly deliver a warhead to multiple targets would be a stealth cruise missile; specifically, a type of missile that had been abandoned due to it's provocative nature as an unstoppable first strike weapon, the SLAM. The fallout each bomb had left was also a concern, in that there was none. Sure, there were trace isotopes of Titanium and other metals used in the construction of the missile, but no trace of Uranium or Plutonium could be located, and that suggested that they simply didn't need them. Nuclear bombs that could be built and launched suddenly and without warning was terrifying to anyone in the know.
Lastly, ORCA's actions suggested that they feared nothing, and had the capacity to strike again unimpeded.
For everyone else in the world, they were terrified beyond imagination. ORCA was now a name that everyone knew, a superpower that held such sway and power over the world whilst being an untraceable ghost, able and willing to do as they pleased, and taking more lives in a single moment than had ever been taken.
The Investigator was not everyone else though. He knew exactly who the members of ORCA were. Their message had been unpleasantly vague, but had actually been addressed to him, and him alone. To think that those little civilians would go so far for a friend…
And whatever that thing had been on the runway, continuing to crawl and kill long after it should have been stopped by pain or blood loss. Definitely not human, some kind of machine, or a demon of war. A demon in search of one girl.
How far would they go to find her? How many more lives would they take? What would they do…if they failed? These questions and more were piling up within The Investigator's mind, and the only logical answer, was that it would be best if they didn't find out.
The General was everything that The Colonel had strived to be, excessively so. He was a man to be respected, certainly. But much like The Colonel, The General had glaring flaws.
"Good afternoon, Sir." The Investigator greeting informally, his station leaving him with a good deal of independence to operate.
Turning with a scowl, The General began to address the intelligence officer. "Mr. Investigator, in all your time, have you ever heard of these ORCA terrorists?" He then pointed to a map of the surrounding area. "These plans we've been building for years have been stalled, while the whole world searches top to bottom for those bastards. Power like that doesn't just appear out of nowhere, they must have been operating with some objective for many years."
"I'm just as in the dark as everyone else." The Investigator chose his words carefully.
"…" Growling at a map of Hokkaido, The General shook his head. "There is talk of abandoning the invasion altogether. The operations in Tokyo were systematically dismantled before they could come to fruition, and we've lost the initiative that we had days ago. Also, why have you not killed that civilian yet? I told you to do that yesterday, global terrorist attack notwithstanding."
"…" ORCA had gone so far just to buy that girl time, there was no telling how far they would go if she died. His duty to his nation was one thing, but taking that one life in spite could be disastrous, beyond what anyone believed. Perhaps, the longer she lived, the better. "I…believe she has information regarding ORCA." He spoke quietly.
The eyes of The General widened. "Are you serious? Don't joke around!" He hissed.
"Twenty hours before the attack, a man claiming to be part of ORCA made a threat to secure her release." The Investigator reported.
A snarling smile graced The General. "If what you say is true, then start draining her of information, anything and everything she might know in order to find those terrorists. They struck our homeland with a nuclear bomb, and six more nations filled with innocent people. The number one priority in the world is to find them and stop them, no matter the cost. Use any and every method you can."
"Yes sir…" The Investigator hid his hesitation. The Butcher hadn't stopped for death to try and save his friend. It was certain that he would come for her again.
Authors Note: When I first imagined this story, the original intent had been for the Doki's to meet a Lynx, and for everyone to be left aghast in horror. That was achieved by 18, but there was still so much potential. It was then that I realized that I could take this story in a new and horrific direction, one where the sins of Armored Core are repeated and the world destroyed, all for Sayori. And the suffering inflicted has not even reached it's peak.
Also, apparently, I waited so long to post this that DDLC+ came out. Imagine that. As it is, it will have no effect on this story in major plot, but it might give me a bit more to work with later on for character interaction, so that's cool.
This chapter comes a bit earlier than I expected, since I'm still working on chapter 33. At this point, I am expecting chapter 33 to be the longest I've ever written. However, after this point, every chapter should be relatively simple to work on, since I won't need so many notes. I have three different files of notes detailing things for this chapter. So please be patient while I finish this.
Thanks to Ikityan02 for the commissioned art made for this and the previous chapter. Please go check out their work.
To TorvaMessor: I'm glad that you are enjoying this, thank you!
To: Auxiliary Nexus: I agree, stories where an unexpected individual or variable are most exciting and intriguing. And thank you for the praise, I spend a long time making sure the story is realistic, accurate, and internally consistent, at least, as much as possible. I have been fascinated by Armored Core for a long time, and DDLC is wonderful in it's own way, and despite these two IPs being so different, I am happy to make a work that combines them into something wonderful and horrific.
To JaphetSkie: Hello again, and thank you for commenting. Since you gave a list, I will give you one as well:
1. Yes, Nineball has been in this story for a while. First mentioned in 14, then as a character in 21, and now as it's name, Hustler One.
2. Things have definitely come back around, and now the only future is war.
3. It wasn't exactly secret, but you caught that reference.
4. Oh yeah I guess so, but I was not thinking of Ace Combat at this point in time. My reason for using seven nukes is (A) Because that hits most of the nuclear powers, with only 2 or so left un-nuked, and (B) as another biblical reference. Also half the name of the previous chapter was a reference to the 2010 film Unthinkable, which also featured terrorist and nukes.
5. Yes, that is another The Expanse reference. I don't know how possible it actually is, but I doubt Monika was physically unaffected after committing nuclear terrorism.
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.