Chapter 15

Watchpoint spent well into the night partying. What were they celebrating? Being alive, (almost) reuniting with a friend, having survived hell, killing a supervillain, being chosen to be superheroes, or a mixture of all the above.

They were well into the next morning when they got asked to leave the premises, and while it was expected of military drunkenness to cause a brawl or something, nothing happened, such was their happiness that they didn't care for anything trying to raise their hackles.

They stumbled like crazy, but they managed to get back at their hotel rooms and finally sleep until next afternoon.

It was then that they noticed that someone had left some supplies for them on the room's closets. The boxes contained something labeled 'Sun killer Mk.6', and the moment they took a whiff from the bottles, their hangovers (and headaches) were gone. It was marked with a familiar logo so they knew that even if he couldn't be there in person, a friend was watching over them.

"Package delivered successfully, no alarms triggered, sir." The young man looked not a day a above nineteen, but his short stature would make you think he was younger than he looked. Truth was he really was younger than anyone nearby. His sensor scanned for any traces of tails or bugs, a part of his processes scanned for the data traffic of 4000 devices around him and another part kept watch over the individuals he'd been forced to subdue.

"Well, done, 1S, err… sorry, Soreo. Rendezvous with 1A… damn, again? Rendezvous with Ana and proceed towards your extraction vehicles. You've proven yourself kid." Those word sent something through his circuits, that he couldn't identify. He logged the reaction for later cataloging.

Through the networks, Zea and Ark looked at their first work feeling happy for the first time. Even is Core: YSN couldn't interface like they did, they knew enough about him that they could predict he would be happy too.

Model 1 Type Scanner, the first sentient android of this world, linked with Model 1 Type Assault, the second android to open her eyes to the world. Their vehicles still had that special shine of fresh out the assembly line and as they boarded them, 1S dropped the EM Field around the downed soldiers he and 1A had knocked out during the night. The flight units' engines roared they took off and their pilots set course back to Arsenal City.

Back to home.

St Matthew Island was not that remarkable, a single lighthouse visible in the distance was what set it apart from the nearby islands. Only if you knew your history would you know that there wasn't supposed to be anything there. The climate conditions and lack of resources made it inhospitable for humans to settle and despite once holding military on its shores, they had long abandoned it.

For someone that didn't need any food or could build without hauling materials from across the ocean, it was perfect. The island now held facilities that resembled large spheres and were connected by large tubes, and if you could watch under those structures, you would find a whole city underground. This was Arsenal City, the growing headquarters of Steel Locust.

And now the home of one very pissed humanoid off weapon of mass destruction.

The underground was littered with the bangs of rivets, the whooshes of laser printing, and the clacks of mechanized construction. Facilities kept expanding by the hour and more hardware filled the newly created spaces to contribute to the expansion. What once began with a tiny hut in the middle of nowhere, was now a monstrous room housing a supercomputer that if discovered, would cause human technology to jump ahead 60 years at the least.

It was noted by the surrounding machines that the single 'organic' occupant of the city walking into a specially reinforced room that served as testing and training grounds for newly assembled machines, and most recently, androids. The facility was equipped to become an improvised sparring room if needed. The bangs now coming out of the room despite the soundproofing was evidence of the anger being let out on machines designed to almost handle it.

"Stupid! Self-centered! Short-sighted! Immature! Girl Genius!" The latest sack of sand hit the walls as its chain was broken again, the thing leaking its contents from the various holes punched through it. The man responsible sighed and ran a hand across his dry face, despite the exertions, he hadn't let out a single drop of sweat.

"Motherfuckers…" I couldn't believe it! Dude! It was one thing to grill you soldiers for any weird intel if something strange happened, but this!

1S' data didn't lie, the number of wounds on their bodies, healed as they were, matched what I knew of interrogation methods performed by intelligence agencies around the world. Broken fingers, arms, hands, legs, ribs, if it was anyone else, they would have been left crippled for life. This was deliberate torture! Damn it!

A little crane lowered another sack while the previous one was collected for recycling. While the Hiden 3D energy printer basically allowed us unlimited resources other than food, it wasn't comfortable to put that much strain in my S2 engine, the power still came through my body, in the end. And that tired me more than two days of superpowered combat, somehow…

I dropped myself into a left-over crate, soon I would create more efficient power relays or maybe even clone my engine, just so I could leave this place without turning it into the newest necropolis. My hands trembled as they used to in my old body, the sheer rage at the impotence was a familiar passenger on my mind.

I knew this could have happened, I knew it, but I just couldn't accept how stupid the organization tasked with saving the world could be. It seemed that they actually needed Mei not because they didn't know a thing about the enemy, but because she alone had to compensate the idiocy of medical professionals, generals and intelligence operatives. And she came up short sometimes, as I dully noted.

Zea and Ark had taken to coordinating the more logistical side of things, as their original purpose once was, the construction of Arsenal City was left to them as I constructed blueprints based on my memories of various media form my last life, stuff I could remember as being praised for being realistic or actually well depicted would find a new cradle on this city. But for now, I had the illustrious job of nest warmer for the most advanced manufacturers in earth.

We had managed to convert the neighboring Hall Island into a launching pad, the damn thing sucked almost fifteen days of around the clock printing, but at the end, the worlds first ground-to-orbit mass driver was created. And soon after, Ark and Zea launched their custom hardware into orbit. Once more they could call themselves Satellite Zea and Satellite Ark. For some reason, they like spending time on my head rather than their personalized platforms, but they had now taken an interesting new habit.

Ever since we finished blueprints for the combat androids, YoRHa, their gear and vehicles included, they'd taken to creating their own variations of the models. I thought, based on the size, that they were going for a Scanner variant model, but little did I know about their intentions. Until they showed me.

"Core YSN, stress levels lowered, are you feeling better now?" Ark's red eyes looked at me from the door to the room. She could have chosen to speak through the megaphones installed on the room, but for some reason, using an android platform appealed to her.

"Father, possibility mapping is almost complete, we can proceed to proper planning stages in 18 hours" Zea's greenish blue eyes flashed as she used her own orbital hardware along that on her android platform and my core. The computing power between those three would only be surpassed by a quantum computer, but I wasn't sure I wanted to push that far. The Honkai escalate in response to progress, you see. Oh, and did I mention the new platforms these two AIs were rocking?

Children, they looked like children. About 8 to 9 years old, if going solely by appearances. But like any electronic, it was the interior hardware that defined its success. They had combined the processing speeds of a YoRHa Operator type and combined it with the size and hacking abilities of the Scanner types, yet they had managed to squeeze in prowess that matched just barely the Assault types. Their dresses mimicked those in our mind space as they were recolored versions of the dress the Humagear Izu once wore. They had altered their 'speech' patterns even more, but I didn't know a reason for that one.

They were just as cute as in my mindscape, I wasn't human because otherwise I would have diabetes by now. But the report coming from Ark took my attention., and suddenly, I wanted to smack myself into the ground. As I had almost broken my memories trying to come up with something to power the city, I forgot the last gift of Tohka Raiden.

The Gem of Bonds, the Core of Thunder. Because what better example of relationships than the electromagnetic links that allowed matter to take form?

It was a beautiful thing, really, if I hadn't had my S2 engine active back then, the connection would have most likely reactivated the thing in an instant. Now it was contributing to the output my base demanded, and I could only feel a bit sad for the one that once held it. No one should treasure a name more than the thing that keeps them alive…

*Poke* Zea's finger dug into my cheek as her smile distracted me from second thoughts. Yeah, I get it, no time to dally. The next set of blueprints detailed how we could replicate a lesser version of the core, it was a function that Herrschers could use, much like Sirin did, will, would. Fukit. Used, on her friends when she brought them back.

I loaded the copies into the 3D Printers queue, replicating the base materials would take some time, but in the end, we had what we needed. Ark's follow up lifted my mood more, she had completed transforming my incomplete knowledge of other series' weaponry and vehicles and made them possible for us to recreate, while not as hard as bringing YoRHa to upon this world was, anime and videogame bullshit somehow didn't translate as well as toku did. Food for thought.

So watched as the newly crated factory began printing a legendary transport know by heart by many gamers: the D77-TC Pelican Dropship. Its enormous frame was once praised as quite realistic in its capabilities, and now, 500 years earlier than on its timeline, this bird would deliver cans of whoop-ass upon the enemies of humanity.

Spoiler: D77 Pelican

Another thing I shamelessly stole from the memories was the M12 Force Application Vehicle: The Warthog. While I doubted I would employ that many humans in Steel Locust, having away to keep up with the mechanized forces wouldn't be a problem.

Spoiler: M12 Force Application Vehicle -Warthog-

And now, my latest bout of stupidity/brilliancy. I remembered a series, focused on dealing with massive onslaughts of enemies, brilliant maneuverability, and weapons aplenty. The Tactical Surface Fighter, from MuvLuv. How a series with such a sappy name could manage to rival the Urobutcher in bloodshed was astonishing, but hopefully me using these designs wasn't inviting more tragedies than this world already had coming.

Spoiler: Tactical Surface Fighters

Unlike the former vehicles, this one had the additional problem of engineering the super-carbon that its series used to explain the ridiculous tensile strength its frame could hold. The twists and turns these could do to try and avoid laser anti-air fire was impressive, even if often not enough to keep its pilots alive. While I had thought of beginning with the basics like the F4 Phantom or jumping straight in with third generation frames like the Takemikazuchi or the F22 Raptor, my companions convinced me of going for the middle option, the second generation frames that held pieces like the A10C Thunderbolt 2, the A6 Intruder and the SU37 Terminator.

While I could later invest on Third generation frames, these suited my purposes for the moment. A large mechanized highly mobile force to contain the Honkai beasts from spreading, Elite units to rush in an take the Herrschers on, the later would be my YoRHa/Rider Units.

The android forces wouldn't be lacking, as we had begun producing the iconic Ho229 Flight Unit that android forces would use in 11945 AD. Replacing the magitech weaponry with Shotriser technology had been our biggest setback, but we managed it. Not having to worry too much for the pilot made production relatively easy.

Blueprints on enhanced drivers were ready but had no priority, once Watchpoint joined me we could find what fit better for them. Extra drivers were already printed, I decided to stick with the Cycloneriser for now, but more Shotrisers and newly printed Forcerisers were added to my inventory.

Contact was made with incoming units. Soreo and Ana were almost home.

"Reminder, incoming communication, SL standard. It its likely Subject Dr. Mei" Zea informed me and I saw both her and Ark clench their tiny fists. They could punch through 9 centimeters of armor, but that didn't' stop them from looking adorable.

Right, game face on. Time to raise my voice

Dr. Mei looked upon the device the group known as Watchpoint had delivered. It had pissed off the Intelligence liaisons they had on base that another agency had so easily delivered intel and hardware to one of their most surveilled POIs (persons of interest), they had clamored about throwing the veteran group into the bring for that stunt but Mei overrode it. No need to antagonize the organization the clearly had invested a lot on that group. For what reason, Mei couldn't fathom, but they clearly were getting some sort of protection from Steel Locust.

The device lit up as a common cellphone from years ago would. The case was reinforced enough that Mei could see the many redundancies and security features that phone had. A marvelous piece, really, if she had been such a vapid girl back before all this started, she wouldn't have hesitated to throw some cash around to get this device from stores. The interface was much like common phones, only if you played with it that you saw that it had a holographic interface in addition to its touchscreen. Quite nice actually.

There was only one contact in the list, and she pressed the call button. The room she was in was specially prepared to avoid any hacking attempts, the surveillance circuits were isolated from the rest of the base and special materials were used to stop any sort of background noise from the outside from coming in.
The phone rang a few times, and the call connected. It revealed a tired looking man, mismatched eyes looked at her with close to no emotion, as if judging her. White hair looked like it hadn't seen a decent bath for a while. His clothes were still clean and pressed, it looked like an officer's uniform and the insignia on his lapels were unfamiliar too. His hands were held in front of him in a pose that let a certain malice be projected.

"Hello, Dr. Mei, I believe we haven't met yet?" He spoke in a soft voice, but the undertone was not friendly at all. "We could have met earlier, had thing gone differently, but you know how plans go when the enemy is involved."

"Hello, am I right to assume you are Lieutenant Edward Yinsen? Watchpoint unit holds some high opinions of you" Apparently that was the wrong thing to say as anger flicked across the man's eyes and his face went hard. "I feel like I must apologize for my subordinates' actions, nothing personal, you see. They held answers to important questions, you see…"

"I see, yes. You torture and experiment on your best soldiers, without care for their wellbeing or their loyalty to you, just to glean the most insignificant parts about the enemy, don't you?" She bristled at that accusation, there was no such thing in her… "You had no idea, then. I already gave you this intel on the data drives before, but I think it bears repeating. Every Herrscher that manifests has something, a Core that grants them their powers, that thing is almost indestructible to human efforts so far. We managed to find traces of at least two major eruptions before Nagazora, and we can guess quite accurately the ones that attacked before. So I have to ask, where are the Cores of Logic and Rejection?"

Mei's eyes widened, to know so much… "We do not know, the Americans dealt with the first eruption and the Chinese killed the second, but it eludes me if they captured these… cores, as you call them." She probed, how did he come across so many secrets?

"The Americans have the Core of Logic? Then…" his eyes widened, and he looked at someone on his end. "Ark! Correlate any common factor in the cases revealed on the latest scandal! Check testimonies from the parents and neighbors! Zea! Locate where every single of them were taken! Check for family locations and every single relative, I don't care if it's their deadbeat dad or their druggie mom! Find them!" He looked back at Mei, his eyes now frantic. "Listen kid, this is hell you're walking into, you hear me? Those things, the Honkai, they might look mindless without a Herrscher to direct them, but they are malicious, actively malicious, they hate humanity and won't stop at anything until we are all dead. You better prepare, for this is a war humanity is no way prepared for. Watchpoint can train you forces until I come for them. Do not waste any time." The call disconnected as he raised from his seat.

Mei's brain caught up with his words, the Honkai by itself, sentient? Actively malicious? How… much sense that makes…. Then the other part registered in her mind. Something was going to happen in America, the United States, but why would they choose such a target?

She would later find out about Project: Alphabet Soup and have her faith in humanity a become just a little bit dimmer.