Chapter 36

As soon Yinsen left, Mei fell to her knees and then simply sat there in the floor, staring at the closed door. The other two scientists picked her up and dragged her behind their improvised barricade. But Telsa couldn't help but voice her thoughts. "The Boss is kind of smooth when he wants to, don't you think?"

"Yes…?" Mei was still dizzy, despite Kevin's previous attempts, no one had shown that much faith in her, save for maybe her parents, but well…

"So you… with him?" Tesla asked, and then the implications hit Mei like a truck.

"Eh? No! I mean, I don't know much about him and then…" Mei went scarlet at the thought, her and the Major? But their jobs…. And the age difference…

"Milka, stop teasing the girl. Or did you forget how much that one teacher back at school made you swoon?" Einstein had been testing the aim in her Shotriser and looking for something to improvise a stock for it.

"Oi, I'll let you know I never got a hug, or a pep talk like that from Doctor Ritter, ok?"

"Hm… true…"

"…I wouldn't mind if he came at me like that, though."

"Milka, shut up."

"He might find out about your Cup Noodle fetish~…"

"As if you're any better, Miss Kabedon Meltdown"

"That was an accident, I tell you!"

Through this, Mei was still stuttering feeble denials.

I felt the lock set in as I ran outside. They would be safe.

I would make it so.

I picked up speed and jumped to the top of the wall the US Engineering corps had printed using my tech. beyond the wall a massive horde of Zombies was running towards us.

In my mind, I felt the core of reason activate, and loading a set of blueprints, I began running along the wall.

Silver substance left my body and reformed into an anti-infantry turret with twin mounted .338 Norma Magnum-chambered Profense M134 Miniguns on a wheeled platform, the moment it finished taking form, it had begun spewing fire on the undead horde while I kept running and creating more of the turrets. Since the top of the wall had rails, every machine I printed could move independently from my input and they raced to their new position to get maximum coverage of the outside area.

Some soldiers had managed to get their gear ready, but I was already preparing to transform to further thin the horde. The Cycloneriser appeared in my hands. "You up for this?" I asked the inanimate object, as I put it on. "Cycloneriser!"
"Let get this party started!" I pulled out my key and pressed the button. "EVA-One!"
Wait, that's not… a new key? Ok, let's try it!

I slotted the card into the driver. Being atop the wall, I could see as the zombies focused on the loud music and some of them began mutating in the spot, their white chitin covering even more of their undead bodies. I was surround by a dark tornado of energy and I saw a ghostly apparition emerge from the dark particles. I pulled the trigger.
"Henshin!"
The moment after I shouted, the apparition, the semi-transparent version of Eva unit 1 let out a bellowing roar and crouched over me. "Cyclonerise!"

"EVA One!"
Purple armor appeared all over me, and my undersuit gained a few neon green highlights. My helmet materialized and I felt my FOV reduce until the system completed itself.

"Rise to become Legend. Unit One"

…Well, that was unexpected. Aright! Time for finishers!

I pulled the trigger once more. "AWAKENING SPARK!"

The soldier coming out and getting atop the wall the Engineering Corps had built with those fancy cars from the taskforce looked at the chaos surrounding the base. The zombies were in a frenzy, roaring and running at the walls which now had so many turrets that it looked like a battleship. Then another roar drowned the former as the turrets opened fire in full auto.

The roaring match that took place was odd to see. As one was constant util the guns had to cool down, and the other grew and shrank as large swathes of undead were killed, and once the soldiers arrived at the top of the wall, they added their own rain of lead against the horde.
Someone in the crowd remembered that despite the large amounts of casualties, there were no bodies, guess the bodies came to them now.

And then, some sort of arrow made of orange light materialized on top of a few hundred undead, which later began spinning revealing themselves as drills. Something appeared on top of them almost at the same time and drove them down on the undead, turning the fields into the world biggest and most brutal blender.

But that didn't kill all of the undead, and more were coming to fill the empty space between the horde and the walls. Space that then was filled by bullets as the turrets resumed their firing.

The soldiers snapped out of the trance and kept firing.

Dobbin's YoRHa personnel had mostly been undergoing maintenance or rearmament, so it took a few minutes for them to get out on the fight, but they had received the new upgrades, mostly guns, but among them there was a 'new' piece of tech that might have been overkill. The gun was an assault rifle that fitted on their combat doctrine very well. The Lancer Mk3 GL Tactical Assault Rifle fitted their needs of being lightweight (for an Android), large ammo capacity and easily modifiable to their purposes. The included micro-missile launcher was a welcome addition.
The Assault Models in Dobbins picked one in their hands along with other bladed weapons such as the Type-4O Short swords and a couple Combat knives. Some Scanner models picked up the Lancer Mk1 Battle Rifle, the Vortex Energy Sniper Rifle or the Seeker RC Sniper Rifle along with a Talon Auto Pistol and combat knives, quickly taking positions atop the walls and offering support.
However, they all hear across the radio, that the attack was not restricted to the state anymore. Across the whole country, reports of attacks filled the airwaves.

I heard the transmission and knew we had to deal with the Herrscher of Storms quickly. "Core YSN to Carrier De Grasse: Scramble all Flight Units immediately, sending locations, Carrier Wunder, Scramble all dropships to deploy Combat Models as necessary." I felt as the carriers began their own preparations. So, I came back to my own situation.

Currently, I was buying more time for my androids to being the counteroffensive, but since we were surrounded, we were kept from finding the horde's source.

Who am I kidding, its that girl again. So I shouted a few words that should change the tide. "All network! ACTIVATE WAR PROTOCOLS!"

The Core Network was a curious thing, keeping together technologies from completely different worlds, even if created by them. It was the combination of all of the processing hardware Steel Locust had been creating. Each new autonomous or semi-autonomous machine donated a fraction of its power to the greater network.

The Network had protocols with various levels to indicate how it allocated its power to the various tasks Yinsen had left it with. From the early Testing Protocols when he had begun building Arsenal City, to the Defense Protocols he'd unknowingly installed when he created his first combat androids and tactical fighters.

However, the new War Protocols brought everything the network had to pure offensive capabilities. Searching among Core YSN for relevant memories, it began recreating the systems it found. Discarding those that used exotic materials not readily available or costly to manufacture.
Those designs already in production were given priority at the 3D Printers, and thanks to the Core of Reason, they had even more blueprints and power to use. In Arsenal City, half of the Manufacturing Corridors redirected themselves to creating even more of their kind, and half began printing some hardware to take the skies. In space, the Core Satellites began printing their own orbital weapon platforms, while the Longinus-class Strategic Support Satellites gained a new update, and some of new platforms were linked to their section of the network.
In the fleet, several of the Carriers began their own weapons manufacturing. While restricted by their location, some new hardware was printed and rushed to scramble. Among them, were some Eva-sized weapons that were immediately put in the Eva's Shoulder Pylons. And for the TSF's being serviced on them, several new weapons were adapted for TSF use.

However, complaints coming from the assault models were taken and considered, as memories were sorted through and categorized. Several entries regarding Kamen Rider Accel Booster, Super Gekiranger, Iron Man Mark V and Mk VII, Augmented Reaction Suit and MJOLNIR Gen2 Armor were created, and observation of desired effects was conducted. The Carriers began building the prototypes along with the line of those memory entries, making several variations prepared for the Assault Models' specifications.

As we cleared the area around Dobbins for the eleventh time, we took inventory. No undead had made it inside, but they had bought time for several swarms of Archangels to darken the skies above us. Those swarms were dealt with as more of the AK-630 CIWS materialized on top of the SL-owned buildings.

We had to hurry. Watchpoint had spread out on the perimeter to aid the conventional forces, so it took me time to gather them up. I found Himeko last as she was wiping pink blood off her armor.

It was mildly hot.

"Himeko, are you ok?"

"Yeah, just…" She looked a bit lost, evident even with the armor obscuring her expressions.

"We're going to finish this. Come on, we gotta get out of here before another swarm takes over the skies again."

"Yeah, lets…. The others?"

"On the ship, we're looking for you."

"Right… right."

We made it back to our Pelican and took off towards the frontline.

In cities around the country, terror spread as the missing Honkai Xenomorph strain reappeared and began their killing spree. A few hundred thousand civilians died in the first hour as the Honkai reduced them to bloody ribbons. The few emergency services that remained were completely swallowed as their meager weapons couldn't do anything to the agile monsters currently tearing the cities apart.

Then, before the National Guard could arrive, the scream of jets was heard above the commotion the slaughter was causing. Some slowed down and began strafing the hordes on the streets and some switched to a humanoid form that began killing the aliens climbing the outside of buildings, and a few dropped their pilots on the streets.

The Assault Models were armed with a simple Type-4O sword and a Morita M1 SMG, but some had instead swapped loadouts to include a Lancer GL and a Shotriser. The Androids rushed to begin their own slaughter of the enemy forces. Spoiler: Morita M1 SMG
The human casualties would be staggering, but in the end, the enemy would be eliminated.

Our Pelican soon reached the frontline and even with the roar of engines at full blast, we could hear the sounds of combat.

We hovered next to some Archer Artillery trucks, which were quickly spewing out shell like there was no tomorrow, but going by how fast the things were firing, the G-models manning the systems were working overtime to keep the RPM high.

We had been making the Herrscher spend her forces by making her create as many combat organisms we could force her to for almost eight hours now, yet from what the sensors told me, the Hurricane shielding the Fourth Herrscher was around 15% smaller, the winds inside of it still set it firmly as a category 5.

But we needed to kill her before she can discover any more exploits of her power. I stood inside the Pelican's cockpit as Zea and Ark kept the dropship stable. "Right… we need something to make her desperate enough to open a way through that hurricane or else we won't be able to reach her…" I looked at the screens in front of me and took a decision. We might get out of the pan and into the fire, but right now we were inside an industrial microwave. "Naki, you said you got something for dealing with Bixi, did you get it working yet?"

"Yes Father. The platforms are operational at this moment."

"How good ae they with dealing with a large number of enemies?"

"Very. Would you like me to specify any other function?"

"Right. Throw in something that won't remain behind to people can clean it up safely and nothing nuclear, ok?"

"Understood. Connecting to LS3 Platforms. Parameters set. Splash in 20… 19… 18…"

The projections came in and holy shit… "Everyone, fall back!"

Thankfully, since only my forces were fighting at the front, we got out of the projected danger zone. The TSFs made a staggered retreat, the Widows first, then the Takes and the Berkuts last. The Avengers demonstrated how powerful their engines were as they more or less skated their way back to the defensive line. The tanks and artillery opened fire and the MLRS began utterly destroying the incoming combat organisms, however the numbers meant that for every one we killed, ten more took their place.

And then, as soon as the beasts were 200 meters away from us, the weapons hit.

Pillars of light came down from the heavens, before splitting right before hitting the land. Close to none of them missed but I could see the number of pulverized beasts was growing. However, the shockwave made the Pelican shake like a plane in turbulence. Testament to Watchpoint's professionalism, they barely let out a whimper as the ship trembled like crazy. A large wall of dust was rising so Zea and Ark grounded the Pelican just as the shockwaves hit us again.

As the dust wall hit us, we switched to spaceflight mode to stop the engines from getting choked up in dust and also to stop us from being thrown out of control and crashing. The massive dustbowl that erupted did make a lot of our mechs stumble even behind the Avenger's shields. We felt the dropship bounce even as we used the thrusters to stick us to the ground. The world went dark even for our sensor suite.

The outside world got really quiet.