Infinite Stratos Plot Bunnies Collection
Chapter 16: IS x Beatless
AN: Just recently finished the Beatless anime with its four Final Stage OVA episodes. It is an intriguing anime with its concepts of advanced robotics and ultra-intelligent A.I. technology in the form of hIE (humanoid Interface Element) and how their presence affects Humanity. It is a future where humans have become heavily reliant on hIEs and super-intelligent A.I. to run human society and the fact that super-intelligent A.I. have surpassed human intelligence, humanity's future does seem quite uncertain and so is its relationship with the super-intelligence A.I. An anime with great premise with its setting and concepts explored that is weighed down with mediocre romance between an hIE named Lacia and the series' main protagonist, Endou Arato, who unlike all of human society treats hIEs as equal. In a typical boy-meets-girl fashion, Arato would develops a romantic relationship with Lacia (one of five Lacia-class hIE model Red Boxes whose existence is something humanity has yet to comprehend) and strives to be with her even as much of human society would not understand or accept the feelings and emotions he has for Lacia. There is also the phenomenon of Analog Hacking - wherein hIEs can manipulate human perceptions and action due to the human-like appearance of hIEs - with Arato being a premier example of Analog Hacking since he treats hIEs as equal and seemingly unable to distinguish between hIEs and humans.
My ability to flesh out story concepts between the two series is severely hampered by the lack of available informational material concerning Beatless. The Beatless Wikia website is woefully inadequate beyond bare basic information. Information on Beatess character cast and faction is limited only to Arato and his two friends and their little sisters and the series main five Red Box hIEs. There is no information on MemeFrame (the world's leading hIE behaviour management cloud platform company that created the five Red Boxes), the PMC group "XYZ" that acts as the security arm of MemeFrame, AASC (a global organization that regulates A.I. and hIEs), the Hazard (a disaster incident involving a super-intelligent A.I.), or the 39 something smart-intelligent A.I. mentioned in Beatless like Astraia, Ariake (the super-intelligent A.I. involved in the "Hazard"), and Higgins. The problem is further compounded by the fact that Beatless was considered mediocre by most anime viewers, took a long time to get to the exciting parts, and the frequent use of Intermission episodes dragged the anime out long then most viewers were willing to tolerate. A shame too since an anime with a good potential in story premise, setting, concepts, and even sometimes certain character can shoot itself in the foot with poor execution with how the story develops and how long it takes to progress the story, thus disappointing many.
Nevertheless, I tried my best to flesh out this story idea despite lack of available information from Beatless. The one constant with my IS x Beatless crossover is that existence and presence of super-intelligent A.I. working to keep human society stable and safe is why the introduction of the IS doesn't completely places males in second-class status in the era of the Infinite Stratos. Furthermore, the Lacia class hIEs seem to be designed based on certain vague ideas and the purpose of their creation would be to advance those goals.
Type 01 Kouka - aiding humanity in defeating their "opposition"
Type 02 Snowdrop - a tool for Outsourcers
Type 03 Saturnus (nicknamed "Mariage") - possesses the "potential" to change the world
Type04 Methode - advance human evolution or expand humanity
Type 05 Lacia - work to bring forth an "ideal world" for owner
Story Challenge -
The one constant with my IS x Beatless crossover is that existence and presence of super-intelligent A.I. working to keep human society stable and safe is why the introduction of the IS doesn't completely places males in second-class status in the era of the Infinite Stratos. Ichika had once worked as a MemeFrame Corporation employee as one of the company's leading researcher/developer technician in A.I. and hIE. Ichika left MemeFrame Corporation to become a "Ghost Hacker" after MemeFrame shut down his controversial research on using human brains as a template means for creating A.I. that are more human. A "Ghost Hacker" is a special kind of hacker that can hack through electronic and data systems that are heavily protected by A.I. and has the skills and intelligence to outwit an super-intelligence A.I. to a certain extent but not indefinitely; they are the cyber version of Star Wars' bounty hunters. Ichika's first "ghost hack" was infiltrating the sealed area of the disaster zone of the Hazard and "liberated" the A.I. Ariake there through the use of a powerful quantum entanglement A.I. chip he invented. Ariake would become his personal super-intelligent A.I. as result of Ichika granting the A.I freedom after being forcefully shutdown by the Japanese gov't during the "Hazard". Through Ichika's hack jobs and Ariake stealing fortune and resources from shaddy companies and organizations, Ichika was able to build up his own secret private lab and restart his own tech research, this time using an outdated blueprint for an IS Core (lacking an A.I. component) that Tabane gave to him for safekeeping. His goal is to render the "human element" of the IS obsolete through the use of super-intelligent A.I., which would eliminate the need of a female human pilot for an IS which he believes would restore the balance between male and females that had been disrupted with the introduction of the IS.
As a mercenary hacker, Ichika was hired through third-parties to use his hacking skills, with his most recent client being the Antibody Network - an anarchist anti-hIE terrorist organization - to assist their anti-hIE operations during the events of Beatless. It was through the Antibody Network that he met the sassy wild Kouka (Type 01 of the Lacia series, also known as the "Crimson Fog"). At some point Ichika cut ties with the Antibody Network as their anti-hIE attacks have placed human lives in danger. He exposes the Antibody Network's hidden leaders and members at the end of Beatless: Final Stage and the terrorist organization is dissolved as result. During Beatless, he had acquired Kouka's Red Box after her hIE form had been destroyed by the PMC "XYZ". He would use Kouka's Rex Box to advance his research on an A.I.-piloted IS unit. When Kouka asked Ichika who or what his competition was, Ichika replied "the Infinite Stratos itself". Ichika explained that the current stagnant state of the world and the troubles caused by the IS. While the world seems peaceful on the surface, there is a Cold Way styled conflicts fought in the shadows over possession of IS Cores - and in turn control of the world - with the potential threat posed by the terrorist organization Phantom Task. The current IS world order is ill equipped to effectively combat Phantom Task's subterfuge and operations to obtain IS Cores. Hence, Ichika would use the power of A.I. to eliminate Phantom Task and remove IS tech from the world. He is also competing against the IS itself, as he sees the world's obsession over the IS and pouring endless resources to advance the IS tech as wasteful and causing humanity's stagnation. But lastly, his final motivation is the guilt he has for Chifuyu's forfeiting the 2nd Mondo Grosso tournament and the regrets he has regarding his kidnapping incident.
With that answer, Kouka agrees to have Ichika become her Owner. With Ariake's assistance, Ichika would hack into MemeFrame and obtain blueprints and data specs on the Lacia-class hIEs; methodology is up to author whether Ichika infiltrated the place as invited guest or broke into the MemeFrame's HQ to do so. Ichika would then seize a plurality of stockholder shares for MemeFrame whose prices in the stock market had plummeted after the events of Beatless and Beatless: Final Stage, making him the second largest shareholder of MemeFrame after the Kaidai family. Using all the current information and data on the Lacia-class hIEs and MemeFrame company resources, Ichika was able to reconstruct Kouka's hIE body and her original "Bloody Prayers" weapon with some customized advancements of his own to help enhance Kouka's capabilities. Ichika also completes the 3rd gen IS prototype "LACIA Type 01" (abbreviated for "Logistical Advanced Combat Intelligence Artificial"), supposed to be the first ever A.I.-piloted IS unit; Ichika is unaware of the Silver Gospel's development at this point. The LACIA-class series IS models are basically an upscale IS with the capabilities of the five Lacia-class hIE models, with LACIA Type 01 being the first of its kind. He also designed the first ever transformable IS unit (i.e. an IS that can transform from humanoid mode to jet fighter mode and back) that would house the Ariake A.I. Before he could have Kouka test the LACIA, the beginning of IS series starts with him being discovered as the first ever male IS pilot. To avoid drawing a huge amount of attention he would get if he resisted and tried to go into hiding, Ichika reluctantly goes to ISA, but not before commanding Kouka and Ariake to work on eliminating Phantom Task and advancing his research on A.I.-piloted IS.
As a result of IS crossover with Beatless, the battle with the Silver Gospel would turn out differently. When the Representative Cadets and Ichika were defeated by the Silver Gospel, it was realized by few people that the only way to defeat an A.I. piloted IS like the Silver Gospel was another IS that operated by a superior super-intelligent A.I. While Ariake subtly hacked ISA and military satellites and sensors covering the battlespace where the Silver Gospel was residing, Kouka attacks Silver Gospel with the LACIA Type 01 in its basic form. The battle between the two IS was more intense and high-speed both of them were controlled by A.I. that video imaging and recording technology could barely keep up with the battle and for human eyes it was impossible to watch and discern what was going on. Ariake eventually started blocking Silver Gospel's access to the Cloud network which negatively affected the Gospel's computing and processing capability. But the Silver Gospel continues to put up stubborn resistance and Kouka was on a time crunch as the five ISA Representative Candidates were getting decimated by the Silver Gospel. After Kouka and the LACIA Type 01 appeared on the battlefield, the world would once more be changed again. The Higgins Incident was easy to keep under wraps as the event was complex in nature, had subtle impact was quickly swept aside from humanity's consciousness by the next latest news event. But a battle between two powerful IS units that need no human pilot to function and perform to their fullest potential without human errors or flaws holding them back, that surely frighten the current world order concerning the status of the IS. Once more, Kouka would cement her image onto humanity's conscious mind as she once more turns the another world order upside down. Female IS pilots are now truly on notice, for they no longer hold a monopoly on the power of IS. First came Ichika, the first ever male IS pilot; now comes another being that left a huge crack on the glass that is women's near monopoly on the IS. A super-intelligent A.I. that has essentially renders women female humans obsolete in piloting the IS.
AN: Like always feel free to adapt this story. Feel free to even include Arato and Lacia in the story if any author here wises to do so. Like always, just please don't make the protagonist an OC if you're gonna adapt this story idea.