Chapter 19

The storm finally passed thought the island and we moved in to destroy whatever Honkai were left behind. Hopefully the Americans would heed my words or those of Fire Moth, cause the shit was going to hit them at terminal velocity.

Now that they weren't continuously respawning or having a category 4 (close to 5, really) hurricane as cover, we were free to murder every abomination in the cities. Now the problem would be as any other natural disaster, a humanitarian one. We could leave some assets to help, but we would need every gun and ship to fight the Herrscher's forces. Naki had figured out a simple but effective Honkai energy 'heatsink', basically it was a large spherical device that we would bury or sink in the places where human habitation would be. At least the people wouldn't be turning into zombies unless something worse happened. We would beam out the HE-Sinks once they were full and then beam in another one until the area was clean. I though about leaving some SFFCU's to help rebuild but thought about the fortifications we would need in other places. Shit.

We beamed our forces back into Arsenal City. We would have at least another day since the storm had slowed a bit after passing through Cuba, so we saw to check every piece of equipment to see how it had developed. Yua was right at the machines' side as soon as they appeared back into the hangars, which had been just finished construction under Hall island. The Pelicans slowly maneuvered the SFFCUs into a place reserved just for them, then hovered around to find somewhere to land. The TSFS landed and thumped around until they found their own places, the flight units were left on the hangars on the surface of the island as those were our Quick Response Teams. The Androids piloting all these marvels of physics bullshittery came down and stood in formation, Zea, Ark and I stood in the main entrance connecting to the rest of Arsenal City. It felt weird being looked at by close to six hundred androids with eyes filled with adoration, or whatever came closer to the emotions running through their processors right now.

"Greetings, my valiant YoRHa units. My name is Edward Yinsen. I apologize for having had to send you into combat so soon after your first activation." I could see some of them beginning to protest those words. "But you answered the call, and for that, I'm grateful." I bowed a little. It seems like someone loaded them with Japanese manners or something, as they looked shocked. "Thank you, all of you. Allow me to say these words: Welcome to Arsenal City, welcome Home"

Saying that the meeting between Doctor Mei and Secretary Watts was tense would be an understatement. One had seen the threat in the flesh but not its full power, the other had found what happened when that power was poked recklessly, and it lashed back. This was the first time they had seen the full abilities of the Honkai and it terrified both. Well, more the latter than the former, as that same horde was now making its way to him.

President Howard McNeil looked at the two, while the rest of the generals and secretaries had bewildered expressions, mostly at the young foreign girl sitting at the (virtual) table. Some looked bored and almost sleeping on their seats and more looked so wired the guards outside were quietly calling for someone with first aid knowledge. The president cleared his throat and ended the awkward silence. Arthur Watts looked at the assembled figures with something close to apprehension. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have been notified of an imminent threat to the United States, may I present Doctor Mei Tachibana of the United Nations Taskforce Fire Moth, who is the available expert on this threat."

Mei shot him a brief look, for her youth, her kept her nerve in talking to the man and women that dictated the affairs of a nation on a daily basis "Greetings, as Secretary Watts informed you, your country is under threat of a most dangerous enemy, who is in these very moments moving towards your cities with the intention of leaving nothing but death upon them." At her hand's gesture, a new window took sent the images of the attendees to the corners, the image of the devastation left in Cuba sending them into confusion.

"Was this not a natural disaster?" the Secretary of Energy spoke. "I mean, is not usual for Cuba to be the one hit, but this is hardly something our relief aid doesn't know how to manage…"

"Wait… are those… shell holes? 90 millimeters?" an Army General observed. "I know those marks. Those are 30mm from Warthogs, what the hell were they doing there?"

"Not only that, look at the patterns, those look like strafing runs, but the angles don't match, they seem stationary…" the Air Force's Chief of Staff noticed. Then the others began seeing the oddities within the images.

"Those aren't debris marks, something cut through those buildings, just what went on in there?" They turned towards the CIA Director, who had just received something from an aide.

"Our sources tell of… what the hell? Giant robots and aliens?" The bafflement was not only that of the Director, as many looked amongst themselves. "I'm sorry but I must… are these real?"

"They are, Director Mason." Dr. Mei looked at everyone in her screen. "I will forward you the events as shared by our sister taskforce, Steel Locust." The images turned to the absurd as they saw… well, something straight out of fiction. Creatures straight out of nightmare emerging from the ocean. The monstrous killings. The strange airships landing troops among the raging winds, Jets that flew slower than they should and transformed into humanoid robots. And the most ridiculous of all, enormous robots carrying equally big weaponry as a soldier would a rifle. The mechanized forces opened fire on the creatures as the planes performed daring extractions on the civilian populace. The transforming jets offering cover as flying creatures rushed toward the terrified civilians. The assembled department heads looked upon the carnage beast induced in men and machine retaliated in kind with disbelief.

"I must admit this movie project of yours is interesting but surely you have something more substantial to have called for this meeting, Mr. Watts…" The Secretary of Treasure began but was silenced with the somber look of the man.

"If I may, Secretary Watts…" The man nodded, and Mei took it as her cue to continue. "The creatures attacking the Cuban city have been designated as the Honkai. Were are not sure where they come from but to our knowledge, this is the fourth time they have attacked human settlements, the previous one being the Japanese Island of Hokkaido, more precisely the city of Nagazora." At the mention of that name some heads looked at Arthur simply steeled his face at the increased scrutiny. "From what we have managed to discover, these beasts answer to a commanding being, called Herrscher, who is a former human corrupted…"

"Wait, are you telling us that these things were intentionally aimed at the Cubans and are now aimed at us?" Another secretary screeched, Transportation, from her little pin. "What kind of sick joke are you playing at, 'doctor'?"

"Project: Alphabet Soup" Mei continued as if no one had interrupted her. "A joint effort between agencies to understand the Roswell Shard, the last remains of the First Herrscher, who attacked the United States sometime in the past."

"Seven years ago." Watts clarified. "A young woman, then designated as Roswell Pilot, appeared at the city of Blue Diamond, Nevada, it proceeded to command those same creatures you saw on the photos and videos to proceed towards the Edwards Air Force Base with unknown intentions, the attack was unsuccessful upon the deployment of the 57th Wing and authorization of high yield munitions to be used. She survived for 90 minutes of continuous bombardment and answered with an unmanned, remote controlled 1-to-1 replica of the 57th Wing and the munitions used on her. During the following dogfight we managed to divert her advances towards Yucca mountain and only using our entire arsenal of MOAB bombs and reactivated W72 warheads did we manage to terminate her." Arthur took a deep breath. "Upon inspection of the battlefield, we found the remains of Roswell Pilot among which was a crystal of unknown make and material. After collection, the crystal was taken for analysis. It was later discovered to react favorably to younger, gifted minds."

"What?" the President's face was… well, astonished and angry would be selling it short. The other faces in the videoconference were not losing to the President in the expression department. The angriest of them all was the CIA Director, who would have killed Arthur with her eyes if she could.

"The crystal, now dubbed Roswell shard was made of an unknown silicate, reacted violently to human contact, but those that managed to retain some consciousness spoke of technological marvels that piqued my predecessor's administration. It began with minors sentenced to death row or life in prison without parole, but sometime after they began abducting children from CPS-known troublesome foster parents. We found some that willingly signed off the kids after asking for a monetary compensation." Someone made noises of disgust on their end. "Some of the project's personnel began volunteering their own children for the experiments. They managed to find the appropriate range of age after one of the agents volunteered his own daughter for a contact experiment…"

...

...
The reunion was a disaster and the other Secretaries had to be muted as they spat a slew of insults and reproaches towards the Secretary of Homeland Security. The President hid emotions well, but Arthur could tell that his tenure might be cut short by revealing this operation. The looks from the CIA Director told him he would have to pay attention to where his morning coffee came from now on.

"Mr. Watts, as… enlightening this presentation of yours is, I would like if you could explain why this is relevant to the situation at hand." The president's voice was hard, and it managed to get the Secretaries to shut up once more.

"Excuse me, but that's where we come in." Mei interjected. "Our sister taskforce, Steel Locust, identified potential candidates to become Herrscher Hosts, much like your Roswell Pilot. One being Amelia A. Matthews, eldest daughter of CIA Operative Kristoff Matthews, who first discovered the requirements for Core's… for the Roswell Shard's activation requirements." She corrected herself. "His wife reported her daughter's abduction and later died of chronic depression, leaving the other daughter, aged 12, to deal with all funeral matters, as agent Matthews still remained at the experiment site since it began. We believe the Core… Shard, somehow received power from the Nagazora incident a few months ago, which caused the experiment's unfortunate consequences, and reactivated it for long enough to send an SOS to whatever place they come from. It is likely that the Shard's location is the Target of the Hurricane Princess, as we have named this Herrscher. We request you transfer it to our custody or if you object to that, relocate it to an easily defensible position away from civilian populations."

"Its location is secure just as it is." The CIA Director canswered curtly.

"Can it survive a horde of otherworldly creature that gives the middle finger to physics as we know it, can turn our people into zombies, has the power to turn wind into a weapon, which at its lowest setting is creating a category 5 hurricane and uses it to destroy any attempt to attack her body?" Mei continued. "Also, we humbly request the location of Agent Kristoff Matthews, which we suspect is also a prime target for the Herrscher's ire."

"And if we don't?" one of the nervous looking Secretaries asked.

Mei's voice was flat. "Then Cuba will be nothing compared to your destruction."

"Not if we can stop it." A voice appeared from a new window. A woman in dress blues next to a white-haired man in a flight jacket. The unit patches in their shoulders were unfamiliar to most of the people in the video conference save for two. Both had met them earlier in the least friendly terms. The woman was beautiful but there was something unnerving on her gaze. The man had completely white hair that went against regulations (the army general noted), and weird two-colored eyes, he was the most nervous of the duo, which wasn't saying much because of how still the woman was. "I am Commander Renee White of Taskforce Steel Locust, and next to me is Lieutenant Edward Yinsen. We offer our capabilities to mount a defense and propose a plan to kill the Herrscher."

"What?" Almost all of the officials responded with that question, Arthur sighed, and Mei began massaging her temples.

It would be one of those days.

Naki looked over the Manufacturing Corridors below Arsenal City. The Fourth had been finally completed and now with the Shards of Thunder powering the systems, she could begin. Her calculations were backed by Arks and Zea's own, their conclusion close enough to be the same. "We need weapons." She accessed the Trinity Dataspace, a marvelous repository of core YSN's data. Memories were converted into pure data and analysis for viability. Those assets that relied on non-reproducible exotic materials were set aside but not discarded, as they held paths that could later be used.

Data from the Cuba Halving was cataloged, performance logs, minor bugs, recommendations by the piloting androids were noted. While they would never tell the Main Cores that the hardware provided was bad, some had begun making minor adjustments to their machines. 48D had linked directly to her Thunderbolt's sensor suite. 21P had disabled safety measures in his Berkut to increase reaction speed. 95B had linked his flight's sensors to aid in the location of civilians for the Pelican flights. 14D has increased the Assault Cannon's reload speed by 1.5% with a few minor adjustments to the auxiliary arms. These and many other observations were logged and sent to Yua for implementation on the next maintenance cycle.

The manufacture of the mass producible Risers was next, the Shotriser and Forceriser were modified to accommodate both human and android users, the Progrisekeys too were selected and fabricated. Memories of a Shotriser version better suited for combat against the Honkai was noted and the appropriate changes were made. The logs recovered from the Watchpoint Raiders were noted and several functions added. The suit's parameters were given higher starting base stats, some sensor suits were integrated, the neural implant requirement was integrated into the UCOM buckles. Some performance in the human user might be diminished, but 'universal' compatibility would become a requirement most precious. A self-evolving program might be something to look into for the future.

More Memories were considered, and even with an exotic requirement like AT Fields, some technology was considered and adapted. The MM-144 Super-Electromagnetic Crossbow was given several changes to be able to be functional in such a scaled-down size, but usage in gunships was noted for later. The Positron Cannons were….

Another consideration, more data. Zea and Ark had sent an additional orbital computing unit much like their own, but that one….

Naki requested permission. Access was granted. The Orbital Manufacturing System inside Satellite YSN was activated and a new weapon began its integration.

Project Name: Lance of Longinus.