Chapter 35

The next phase of the operation had been the reason why we were buying as much time for the US military to prepare. The army had finished mobilizing as much artillery as they could, the Air Force had been recalling as much hardware as they could from FOBs and the Navy too had called as many of their ships for the defense and force deployment. The Marines had been brought front and center and immediately deployed to scout the area. Their intel was way more calming to the brass than anything we had given them. I guess there was still a lot of paranoia coming from them, but the intel was good, nonetheless.

While the military got its gear ready, we tested out own. The Takemikazuchis were beasts in close combat, but were quite average in their shooting, being beaten by the Black Widows in that area. The Berkuts were a bit better than the Takes in close combat but suffered from not being able to use bladed weapons aside from their own Blade Motors and once those had a failure, they became quite vulnerable. Until we could exploit their Esper functions better, they were our 'weakest' link. The Hartens went for rearming in the supercarriers. They had some additions to improve their durability and response time.

The Supercarriers had some addition I didn't remember the originals having. One of them being a series of Hiden 3D printers in their cargo bays, effectively making them a resupply base for as long as they had power. And they hadn't come empty. I wondered if Zea or Ark had interfered when I created them when their contents were being unloaded. K-300 Bastion-P Defense Missile Systems rolled out along with TOS-1A Solntsepyok (Blazing Sun) MLRS, Archer FH77BW L52 Artillery Systems and what looked like Phalanx CIWS mounted in trucks, their silver frames almost making you wince at their reflections under the sunlight. Then the infantry coming among them made me pause. Spoiler: The weapons in order

The YoRHa combat frames were some of the best for CQC, but their reliance on Pods (which we didn't have, yet) for ranged combat was a really weird shortcoming. While we had the TSFs and the Flight Units, we couldn't discard the Honkai's most usual tactic of swarming you with bodies. So it surprised me when new designations joined the network.

The G-model (Gunner) was something that had seemingly taken data from the TSFs and the Flight units and then tried to make it work on a YoRHa chassis. A pair of Surefire MGX heavy machine guns look-alike was on their hands. From the glow and the oddly colored chasis, it was a Shotrise/Attache based weapon. But what surprised me were the various thruster packs they were equipped with. Once in each leg, one in their back and a couple on their shoulders. They were medium armored but from the data forwarded, they were very, very fast. Their sensor suit was based on the rider suits and was good to almost one and a half kilometers unassisted. They were meant as a light assault force. And holy shit, they looked the part. There was a more static D-model (Defense) armed with a 12.7mm KPV HMG look-alike and a backpack of drones that by their specs, could deploy an energy shield yet retained a few of the thrusters in their back and legs for mobility. Spoiler: Weapons Surefire MGX and KPV
White had remotely connected to the carriers and began issuing orders. The Bastions, the Archers and the Sols had begun dispersing along with a squad of YoRHa G and D models. But the later had followed with another loadout, using a riot shield that seemed to be derived from the Avenger's shielding along with the S/A MGX.

The eyesore of my forces was the Eva unit. Arguably my most powerful asset, it had come with no weapons, not even the progressive knife. So, I was restricted to melee or the AT Field, which wasn't saying it was unarmed, but it limited my options. I set a remined in the network to develop the progressive knives of the pallet rifle, marking the former as the priority. If that much cutting power could be replicated in our small arms, we would have a better chance against the Honkai.

We set up along a simple defense line, and we split out fleet in half. Using the mass translocators, we sent the Rainbow and the Blue Ridge into the gulf side of Florida along with half of our frigates and destroyers. The Calypso and Hood had joined them later. So, we had Yamato, De Grasse, Varyag, a few destroyers, a few frigates and the new Eva-carrier which I had named Wunder.

I'm not original, sue me.

The latest Carrier was not that well-armed, but it was the biggest ship. When it wasn't carrying the Eva, it would work as a resupply ship thanks to the larger 3D printer usually used to maintain or repair the Eva. It was an amphibious assault ship (despite its size). It had a front bay meant for ease of deploying the Eva and in the back, there were bays for Pelican or Condor dropships. It had come with half a dozen aircraft I hadn't expected to see.

The King Raven were sort of iconic for their home series. In their world, there were no jet fighters or supersonic missiles, so their aircraft reflected that. It also was rugged to hell and very modular. A well place shot would down it like any other aircraft, but it worked for amphibious assault, and deployment in areas where the Pelicans or Condors wouldn't fit. It looked kinda cool even if it could only transport lighter YoRHa combat models or Riders. And then there was the other thing in the ship.

The Silverback exosuit was not very good to us. Sure, it packed a wallop, but we needed to keep moving to avoid getting swarmed in. And with our new Gunner and Defender models, we really didn't need them for now…. They could work as ship defense, I guess…

The other thing stored in the Wunder was a kind of light battle tank I hadn't expected either. The Centaur was very much unsuited for our world's kind of warfare, but in the coming war, it was something very much welcomed. Sure, it might have design problems since it always breaks down, but it was easy to maintain and repair. Also, it was as fast as a Humvee and light enough to be carried by a King Raven, so I crewed those to move along with the other vehicles and made the Wunder print out a couple dozen of them.
By the time the US military arrived to our battlelines, we were ready.

I went to see the girls before the operation began. With everything happening around me, I barely had time to talk to my sort of employees. Which was a bad start seeing as I needed them for humanity's survival.

Entering the CIC, I saw the three geniuses and a fighter pouring over a table filled with designs and some diagrams I wasn't familiar with. The four noticed my entrance and turned to face me with eerie synchronization, their eyes shining with some madness behind them. Mei beat them to the punch. "Yinsen-san what is that? Just what is that!?" she said in an excitedly manner, pointing at something on the table. I came closer despite every instinct telling me to run and saw several diagrams of Eva Unit-1. Ah, so that's what this was about.

"Uh, one of those money-sink projects that never got anywhere?"

"But how does it work? How does it maintain cohesion despite the square-cube law saying it should have collapsed the moment it tried to stand?"

"Mei… calm down. Let me explain and then maybe I can…"

"You made that with one you magic toys?" Eins spoke in jest, but I saw that she was seriously considering that statement. I nodded.

"Sort of. We found the Core of Logic inside and managed to activate it."

"So how does that explain that?" Tesla pointed at the giant currently laid on its carrier and the Ravens coming out from behind its position. Himeko's pose told me she wanted to know more.

I took a chair next to the table. "The Core of Logic is what gave the First Herrscher her powers. As long as you understand something, it can recreate it with Honkai energy. The more you know about what you want, the more durable it will be. But even if you only know how its supposed to work, it will try to compensate at a higher power consumption. It will also emit enough radiation to kill you while doing so."

"So how does that translate into giant among giant robots?" Tesla demanded.

"First of all, that's not a robot. It's a cyborg meant to destroy humanity." Mei surprised me by saying this. I hadn't seen anyone recognize the gear I was using, I had assumed it had lost its reputation among the masses for whatever reason.

"Yeah, I though about something to get us out of BIXI, and remembered that scene from the series…"

"What are you talking about?" Eins sounded very curious about what we were talking about.

"Back in the last century, someone made an anime to subvert all conventions about how the storytelling went. Many of the usual cliches were flipped on their heads making it one of the most iconic anime in the last century." I spoke, trying to not let know I didn't have the whole story I needed.

"Huh, then why haven't we heard of it?" Tesla pointed at Eins and herself.

"I guess that because a lot of countries banned it for whatever reason people did in those times… Yinsen-san, how do you know about it?"

"Someone told me about it and I spent the better part of my breaks sailing the seven seas to find it in a watchable quality."

"Sail the seven what?"

"Piracy, since there have been no official distributions since close to a century ago."

"The internet sure is amazing…"

"Yes! And so many ideas we could use, I mean, there was this series that had robots that could fly by surfing in the air."
"Really?"

"Yeah? Really cool, but that depended on something exclusive to their world called Trapar, which was then told was emitted by…"

Sergeant Potts looked at the odd sight from behind the machinegun atop his Abrams. When the brass had sent his Armor Company to Florida for a joint operation, he'd expected some infantry and maybe a couple of choppers buzzing around. Instead, he found no less than twenty four-wheeled light tanks, a shit ton of artillery and missile trucks and quite the battalion of infantry patrolling around. And then there were the robots. Some looked human like and other looked as if they made a battleship with legs. Choppers and VTOLs he didn't recognize flew around dropping more of the light tanks or MLRS across a drawn defensive line.

It felt odd. Since when they had someone with this much hardware operating in US soil? The spooks had dropped the ball, hard.

Someone came out of the back of one of the wheeled tanks and waved at him. "You our reinforcements?!"

"Seems like you don't need 'em!" Potts pointed at the gathered hardware. "We were told we were attacking some enemy position!"

"WE are! You hold the line from the enemy's response!" The white-haired man pointed at the artillery ad missile trucks which were being loaded with an absurd amount of ammunition. "We'll kick the hornet's nest and then hold while the air force and the navy throw their punches and spec ops does their thing!"

"Sounds easy!"

"It won't be!"

"Where do I park?"

"West side! By the Archers! Be ready for a fighting retreat!"

"Wait, what!?"

An hour later, in the CIC, Commander White looked at the displays and her own reports. The she got notifications from her forces that they were ready. Well, as ready as they would be. She contacted her superior. "Major Yinsen, we're ready."

"Is that so? Then let's begin the offensive, I'll remain in base to oversee and then launch when ready."

"Understood." And then she said out loud. "Our forces are ready. We can begin."

"Right… wait who named this operation?"

"Why? Huh, now that's I name I haven't seen in forever…"

"Commander White, can you do the honors?"

"Sure. All Forces: Operation Redeker, start!"

"Operation Redeker, start!"

At the sound of that order, the sky was filled with fire. Missiles flew towards the hurricane and thankfully managed to get through. We heard the explosions even as far as we were. Then we heard the loudest, most monstrous screech that ever happened in this world. It was like someone had given an Eva some properly sized loudspeaker and set it to eleven. Then ran the highest pitched little girl voice they could find into one of those distorting filters people like to use to keep anonymous.

Then another screech followed. A few hundreds of thousands of beasts ran at 200 kms per hour to the humans firing lines. The Artillery lit them up, but the enemy had such massive numbers that it looked unaffected. Then the TSFs joined in.

From the sky, Navy and Air Force jets dropped their destructive cargo, opening holes in the enemy's mad charge. As soon as they appeared, those holes were filled by a machine dropping from the sky. Berkut and Takemikazuchi TSFs flanked by Black Widows began their own culling operations. The Widows demonstrated one little known way of fighting they could do. Crouching a little and using all six Assault Cannons at once in a sort of 'turret mode'. The wall of lead met the wall of flesh in a clash that left the ground littered with evaporating flesh.

The navy joined in with their missiles while the SL battleships demonstrated their might. Missiles and plasma-coated shells hit the hurricanes hard enough to penetrate the high-speed winds and then detonate. More Honkai beasts appeared, including gigantic 40-meter-tall Chariots. They were shelled as soon as they appeared. Unfortunately, even with all the artillery striking their rush, the Honkai's numbers mean that there were enough survivors to reach the tanks.

And the Abrams showed why even after close to a century of their first deployment, still ruled tank warfare. Once the enemy was close enough, the Centaurs and second wave of MRLS opened fire, resulting in close to 90% losses of the enemy's units. However, while this would mean defeat for any human enemy, the Honkai instead showed its power.

Not a few seconds later an even bigger wave of beasts rushed again, this time, the sky was denied as the horde of Archangels was unleashed. And they demonstrated one often overlooked ability of theirs: They could go supersonic.

Unfortunately for them, the missile systems were ready, and those Archangels that came too close to the ground, met a gory end at the hands of the D and G models of YoRHa combat units. Their guns' basis had been AA machine guns after all.

Those machines not covered by the D and G models were instead mowed down by the Land Phalanx trucks, showing that even in the near-future, it still remained one of the best interceptor systems. They had to deal with the corpses not falling on top of them, though.

Back in the skies, US fighters find their technological superiority has been turned against them, as their missiles cannot lock on the flying beasts quick enough before a swarm overwhelms them. The Hartens, with 3D combat in mind, begin their own combat, filling the air with missiles and energy bullets. The sound of explosions and dying screeches drowned everything beyond a certain altitude. Pilots ejecting from downed aircraft find themselves shredded by the flying swarm. Some are rescued by the Hartens, but many more are torn apart before having a chance at opening their chutes.

At the Artillery line, most of the Archers had already packed up and left the premises, with the Abrams, Bradleys and Centaurs following suit. Their main cannons kept the enemy at a distance, but that was rapidly shrinking. Then they made if far enough that the massive frames of the A-12 Avengers revealed themselves from their optical camouflage. The A-10 Thunderbolts standing at their sides spun up their should-mounted gatlings and as the last of the tanks made it behind them, they all opened fire.

Thanks to their superior height, the Tactical Surface Attacker could engage from further distances, something the enemy didn't like, as swarms of Archangels came down to try and shred the machines. And yet another vehicle revealed itself as the almost unrecognizable frame of the Abrams platform. Instead of the usual 120mm, it had four AK-630 AA systems, all connected to a Freezing Bear Cooling system and a Shotriser Flashforge. All 24 Photon-S coated barrels spilled their deadly load at the enemy. The Avengers and Thunderbolts took care of those in the ground.

Having someone keeping the monsters off their back, the tanks turned and began firing. From the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico, Florida was bathed in blood: human, machine and alien alike.

I felt something was about to go wrong as the tank companies reported they had begun advancing. It was too soon for things to turn around. I looked at the girls in the command center. "Lock the door, I'll get you sidearms. Himeko, get the team suited up and meet me outside. Something's wrong." Himeko felt the seriousness in my voice and nodded, taking off and transforming while running. I printed enough guns for the girls and gave them one each. "Listen, if you can, brace yourselves in anything you can and don't let go of the trigger. Anyone knock on that door that isn't Watchpoint, YoRHa or me, you keep it shut. Anything brings the door down you fill it with holes. You get me?" I didn't like having to talk this way to essentially teenage girls, but this had Murphy's writings all over it.

Waited until the door locked with the extra reinforcements, using the time to print some rations in case shit went into imaginary axis. Huh I'd just noticed I could now print organic materials; I'd have liked to find out if they were digestible before giving them to the girls, but oh well. Suddenly an idea hit me: there was some that had the ability to use one of our recent weapon additions.
"Hey, Mei, come over here."

She trotted to my position and looked lost and nervous. "What is it?"

"Listen, there is something I can give you in case you need it. I feel shitty having to give it to you or them, since its basically a death sentence, but better you have it and not need it than need it and not have it." I put my fist on my chest and between the blink of an eye, I suddenly had a little jewel in my hand. It shone blue under the fluorescent light, but not as much as it did while inside BIXI. "This is a mimicry of the Core of Reason. I know you or the girls can get it working between all of you. You feel the need, you activate it and blow this place to oblivion."

"…Is this a nuke too?" she looked so afraid of taking my offering and I was reminded that this wasn't the Doctor MEI that would lead humanity into surviving for round two. This was still a teenage girl still finding herself in thrust the command room in a war no one was ready for.

I pulled her and gave her a hug she flailed a bit and she eventually fell limp in my arms. I pulled back a bit and saw her face red and her sight unfocused, so I grabbed her cheeks and pinched, making her let out a pained yelp. I let go and instead grabbed her face and looked at her directly in her eyes. I ignored the blush growing on her again. "Listen, no one knows yet, well, maybe one or two people. But I know you are a great girl, and you are destined for great things. This is a tool of destruction." I shook the gem in my hand. "But you are brilliant, and you'll shine brighter than anyone else. I know you can turn this into something beautiful, something that can help us."

"I ca… I can't make weapons, I don't…" She fidgeted for a few seconds.

"You see? You first thought wasn't destroying the enemy, it was searching for something else. Take this. Make it yours. So that something made to destroy humanity can give it hope" I saw her blush grow, but now she had the cutest look of determination that I had to remind myself that one, I was way older, two, I was already considering a relationship with someone and three, I didn't want edgelord Kevin busting my ass as soon as he got anything resembling augmentations.

Still, I patted Mei's head. "Atta girl. I'll try to get some YoRHa boys and girls down her to keep you safe but expect things to get really crazy soon." And just as I finished that sentence, the alarms began blaring out.