Naki came into the room to find its occupants musing my impromptu speech. She took a look around and came closer to me. In her hands… "Oh." I couldn't help but let out a sound of surprise.
"I was sent your mission details. You will need this." She carried a familiar, black, yellow and red belt anyone that watched the first Rider of the Reiwa era knew.
I took it from her, my hands trembling a bit. It was odd… because I could have made this myself if I had taken the time, but Naki… "What happened to the Cycloneriser?"
"Right here. Some oddities appeared when we tried testing it, so I thought it was prudent to give you an alternative for your mission." She said that but I could see that she… was worried. She took out the Cycloneriser from a bag and I saw an odd shine on it. But then I focused back to Naki's face. It's one thing to know your family went thought some insane stuff. Seeing them repeating that of their own volition was probably playing hell on her emotions.
I stood up and hugged the short android. "Thank you." And that was all I could do to reassure her, for I couldn't guarantee my survival or well-being. Not when I'm expecting just about anything from the Honkai. As I let her go, she looked every bit as lost as any child left behind in the mall would. "Where are Ark and Zea?"
"Right here." They piped up from behind me. Cheeky little… "We finished tuning everything." And then they gave me my Progrisekey. Instead of the usual TYPE: ZETSUMETSU below its name, it now displayed ABILITY: KAMENRIDER. The Magia logo on the key also changed to the MetalClusterHopper logo.
"We fixed it and gave it a better chassis; how does it look?" Ark smiled smugly while Zea tried hiding her own smile.
"It's amazing. Thank you." And I crouched and hugged them both. "Let's go save the world… again."
"You better not be thinking about leaving without saying a thing, Yinsen." A voice interrupted me as I readied my gear in our small armory. Her hands were on her hips and I couldn't help but stare.
"Aika… Himeko. You're already back? You ok?" She was fine physically speaking, but i worried sometimes. The deployment might have made some memories from Nagazora to resurface and the last thing we needed was some PTSD making us freeze while surrounded by enemies.
"That's the best you can do?" She wasn't quite angry but…
"…For now, yes…" I put one Attache Calibur in the table next to the Typhoon Magnum and the other keys in the table.
"Then this can't wait." She came closer, I didn't know what to do until she cocked back her arm and slugged me across the face.
"Yeow!" I couldn't help but let out a noise. Man, just what did this girl lift? Fucking Iridium dumbbells? She set me flat on my back with one punch!
"That's for leaving us behind, you inconsiderate prick!" She sat on my stomach and stopped me from getting up. Another punch made me see stars. "This is for taking so long to talk to us!" I braced myself for the third hit but it never came. Instead, she cupped my face and planted a deep kiss on my lips…
Huh, she tastes like habanero… "…And that?"
"For coming back." She continued her previous task, then she started taking off my jacket. I didn't stop her.
I kind of forgot about gear or time after that.
Once everything was over and we didn't look like the aftermath of a catfight, Himeko made me swear to wait for her while she got Watchpoint for the mission. I'd chosen to leave them in standby in case anything happened but… yeah. She's an amazing woman, that's for sure. I tried wiping the grin off my face. It felt odd breaking the first on this body inside of a glorified locker room, but hey, c'est la vie…
Finishing gearing up at last, I tested the Fortified Suit given to me by Ark and Zea. It certainly felt as close-fitting as at it looked, but it certainly felt so high tech I forgot I was made in an alternate timeline in the nineties, which here meant about half a century ago, if my memory is correct.
Much like the ones used to substitute for the G3 undersuits, mine was armored, but there were differences. Some of the systems were adapted for me only, such as switching the battery pack for a jetpack. The neural link was updated to a headband that reminded me of the Eva A10 nerve clips (the Interface Headset, which is kinda ironic…). The Fortified suit was no Rider armor, but it would serve me in case anything else managed to undo my transformation… again…
Ugh. Thinking about it, I felt chills going trough my spine. Were I any other human, my Isekai adventure would have ended right there, at the sword of the first boss… and now I was facing the field boss right before the next floor boss? Great.
Musing all this I didn't notice I had company until someone tapped my shoulder, and not that I felt it, but because the metal clinked from the taps. "Hm? Sorry, you up for resupply? Let me… you're not SL…" Right behind me was the marine captain YoRHa had picked up in Jacksonville. His stare almost made me seat until I noticed the other men behind him. He looked every bit a marine would look like in a movie, and then some. Was it the marines that ate crayons?. "Oh, Sir!"
"You are the superior here, sir." His voice was bland. I blinked.
"Ah, yes. That's true. What can I do for you, Captain?" While losing a bit of the normal deference to rank, I still was his junior in experience (which meant, at all things military.). He looked at me oddly and spoke with close to no inflection.
"Scuttlebutt's you're assembling some sort of strike package against the oversized laser turtle currently squatting over Jacksonville. Captain Henry Jackson, 1st FORECON."
"Wait, when did Lejeune get hit?" I was honestly baffled, when had the Honkai managed to sneak that far north?
"Wrong state, sir."
"Crap, sorry. You were stationed down Mayport or King's Bay there?" I mixed up the locations… in my defense weren't like fifteen Jacksonville in the US?
"Need to know, sir. Just saying, if you're making an op that requires volunteers, me and my men are ready."
Oh, he must have lost quite a lot if he's ready to go with only a fireteam… ok no, they just are that hardcore. "Thank you but… hm, actually, get inside the hangar, there might be something we can do…" There was something I could kit them with…
I contacted the mini printers in the hangars and queued my request. Thanks to being relatively simple technology (no wildly exotic parts except for the power-packs), G3 was very versatile system. Now, I couldn't give untrained personnel G3-X, but there was an effort to mass produce the things… a couple adjustments, updated drivers, proper interface… hmm, the Auto fitter is fine… The printers had already finished a couple sets by the time we reached the hangars, to which I popped open the crates containing the finished products. "You guys saw the blue soldiers from Fire Moth? While they got the premium units, these were the systems meant for mass production. Went the way of the XM8 via the usual suspects. We managed to find the pre-production batch, so better gear up. Let's see how you handle these bad boys."
I guess Marines being the least favored by the DoD's budget has taught them how to do more with less, but hot damn if I'm impressed. They took my mostly vague impressions on how to use the system and 5 minutes later they're rocking the armor as if they had gone through basic with it. The weapons weirded them out, but I simply swamped the barrel on the GM-01 Scorpion for an extended one and put on a Luger-style stock. It still looked more like an SMG rather than a Carbine (despite the Salamander grenade launcher), but I guess they didn't mind. The Kerberos Gatling Rifle definitely made their eyes shine and I was sure they would like to acquire more. Eh, if they survive, I'll give them some later.
The Unicorn knives were almost passed up until they noticed they could turn into micro-chainsaws, so now they were secured into the suit's leg straps. The batteries were quickly charged and thank God I remembered to switch them to a modular type. Now in case of running out, you could simply swap them with a fresh one from your pack. Thank you, Edge of Tomorrow, for reminding me how important having spare batteries can be. A few indications and they managed their HUDs just fine, the comms units and the other various settings the suit offered.
Seeing the G3-Mild unit being done justice felt awesome. This was a suit that could have been amazing, had it had the time and budget. I took the time to show them to the Pelicans while I waited for Himeko.
She arrived with her unit in tow, they looked a bit tired but there was a fire of determination in their eyes. I greeted them with hugs and a few words of thanks and when I told them about the new additions to the operation, they understood. They'd seen firsthand how a place overrun by a Herrscher's forces looked, this might not have been their homeland, but it was the Marines', and they knew how far one would go to keep their home safe or to avenge it.
As we joined the marines in the Pelican, I took to the cockpit. A quick download and now I was a certified Pelican pilot. The nerd in me was gushing out at how cool that was, I ignored him. The feeling of the rugged seats and the cold of the controls was grounding, as this couldn't be anything but real. And that cemented the fact that I was to embark in something that was actually lethal not only to me but to everyone I knew.
Himeko joined me in the cockpit and she took the gunner position, the Raidriser did have an interface for stuff that used neural implants. She smiled at me, and I steeled my resolve. So much depended on the moment, so as I began the takeoff preparations, I opened a comms channel to every units that would listen.
"YoRHa Units!" In my Hud I saw them, some standing at attention in the hangars, some sitting in their own TSF cockpits, some boarding their own pelicans. "Today we go against something no sentient has seen outside of fiction and simulations. Today we face an enemy that seeks nothing but our destruction! We will fly and meet the challenge issued by those above us! Today we set our existence into the history of mankind and beyond! Today we become legends!"
I admit I was hamming it up, but hey, not many situation lent themselves to this kind of speeches. "Look at your hands! What are they holding? A tool? A weapon? The simple will to secure our future? Clench you hands. Do you feel that which you hold? How will you use it to destroy our enemy?" It was odd telling this to what amounted to children going by time and emotional maturity. "YoRHa! We are Steel Locust! We were created for one single purpose! To Defend Humanity! And how will you accomplish that?"
Their answer was simple logic, even for AI "The destruction of the Honkai!"
"So will we! Today we take our first steps, towards a world free of the invading menace! Glory to Mankind!" I did the traditional YoRHa salute, right arm parallel to the ground, the hand over my chest. I could feel Himeko's incredulous stare from the seat behind me but I kept to my performance.
The effect on my forces was obvious, except for one thing. Those able turned towards my Pelican and mimicked my salute to perfection. "GLORY TO MANKIND!"
The Pelican finally reached the catapult, and as I felt it about to launch us towards our fate, I couldn't help but shout. "OPERATION NEXUS LEVIATHAN: BEGIN!"