Chapter 48 Verdict Day

The sky went dark as the sun was blotted out by wave after wave of hate filled metal. Weapons not seen for more than a century, come to wrought their vengeance on a world blessed to have forgotten them.

Heavily armored, cross shaped rockets with only one thought on their cheap and expendable silicon minds; to drive their nose through an enemy object at high Mach and detonate their explosive payload for maximum effect. For those who had studied the Fourth Machine Rebellion, these abominations were known as Unmanned Suicide Weapons.

While the tens of thousands of drones formed into long lines of certain death, dozens of customized, Third Generation Armored Cores dove into the middle of the engagement zone, intervening in the battle waged between ORCA and League NEXT.

From the West, thirty ACs from the late twenty-third century. Despite their unassuming appearance as ancient Armored Cores, their internal systems had been updated to modern Machine standard. The blue, five-meter tall mechs were armed with a laser rifle, laser blade, back-mounted artillery, and orbit weapons. These machines were known as Controller Agents.

DOVE: The Controller.

From the East, twenty-one machines of a more specialized build; twenty of which were known as I-C003-IN, or "Big Whites" in the twenty-third century. Heavy ACs armed with back mounted artillery and missiles, along with a laser blade and a heavy two-handed plasma cannon. The last machine of this formation was an ultra-light variant of Nineball Seraph, the all black I-CFFF-SERRE, armed with a laser rifle, laser blade, vertical missiles, and high-powered laser type orbit weapons.

IBIS: The Silent Line.

From the South, fifteen machines colored in red and blue, all of their arms functioning as both heavy plasma cannons and laser blades. Fourteen of the machines were bipedal, and Armored Cores only by technicality; their actual designation was Pulverizers. The fifteenth machine had no legs, simply one counterweight which hung below it, as well as a four-pronged structure that wrapped around it, appearing similar to scorpion tails. As far as humanity knew, it was the ultimate weapon of Machine design. The Aerial Pulverizer.

INTERNECINE: The Pulverizer.

Sending only their IFF codes to Hustler One to calm the nerves of their reluctant ORCA allies, the Machines of The Assembly went forth to wage war against those that had led the Earth to ruin.


Great Divider – CIC

"IFF codes received! They are machines!" Serena shouted.

"Monika! Monika it's The Assembly!" Sayori realized.

"About damn time." Monika smirked.

"Enigmatic motherfuckers, aren't they?" Natsuki suggested.

"That's…certainly one way to say it." Yuri reluctantly agreed.

"Looks like those drones are angling over the remaining Land Crabs…" Fiona noticed.

As they watched, the massive cloud of drones centered themselves high over each Land Crab, and fell. Thousands and thousands of high speed projectiles punched into the roof of each Land Crab, tearing into their thick armor and detonating their payloads, opening a path an inch at a time as drone after drone made rain out of steel and rage.

The two mighty Arms Forts, Land Crabs Bear and Wolf, fifty-million-tons a piece, behemoths of steel and will of The League, were left bifurcated, torn into halves by the order of ancient machines. It had cost them over ten thousand drones, but the result had been well worth the effort.

"Oh shit…" Natsuki mouthed.

"Uh! Arms Forts Bear and Wolf eliminated!" Yuri announced, just as shocked.

"R-Right, then both of you, target the Spirit of Fathermight!" Monika demanded. At her order, both the second and fourth main gun turrets swung about, pointing across the deck towards the heavily damaged League Arms Fort.

Under the heavy and accurate fire of all four of Great Divider's gatling railguns, the primary weapons of Fathermight were penetrated and destroyed, detonating it's internal magazines with a several megaton explosion, that tore the main superstructure of the Arms Fort apart, spreading massive, thousand ton pieces of shrapnel in all directions.

Finally, the last obstacle that lay between ORCA and the megafortress of Tall Truck was the Spirit Class Arms Fort, Thunderchild. Slowly, it moved to block the advance of Great Divider, large plumes of sand kicked up by each step it took, as it came about with it's extensive arsenal of superheavy Coilguns, making best speed in spite of it's massive, lumbering form.


The battle at the more localized level had morphed from looking like a sour and blood soaked loss to a hard fought victory. Still standing back to back with two fragments of Hustler One, May watched as the enemy encircling them was then themselves encircled by machines of bygone eras.

Outnumbered, but not quite outclassed, the League clones were forced to split their attention, and that's when she struck. Greedily seeking to spill more blood on this field of war, May boosted towards the closest enemy she could find, knocked their arms up with her own right arm, and drove the laser blade on her left arm up through the cockpit of J23.

Simultaneously, Hustler One decided to help break the League lines, as Novem charged to May's left, crossing blades with J30. Breaking into their guard, the ORCA aligned clone then struck their core with an armored fist, staggering the enemy. Blade forced on cooldown, it drove it's left fist through the cockpit block, crushing another clone.

Protecting May's right, Nineball Seraph attacked J45, rapidly closing into blade range. Locking it's own twin blades with the clones wide pronged set, the Seraph Core took advantage of it's own unusual design, using it's rear thruster blocks to flip over the top of J45, turning about so that the machine stood directly behind the clone. With the laser blades on forced cooldown, it reached over the top of it, twisting it's head off and removing it. It's primary sensor suite destroyed, J45 tried to evade, but not before Nineball Seraph skewered it with twin laser blades to the back.

Then the other machines of The Assembly decided to get involved. DOVE sent forth it's Agents to corner J26, pinning the clone with a not insignificant level of plasma fire. Sending it's units in to finish off the League NEXT, J26 easily gunned down one, then two machines attempting to flank it. Closing to blade range, a third, then forth machine were easily cut in twine. It's own blades on forced cooldown, the clone was not immediately able to stop the machines from driving their laser blades into it. Still, older, smaller machines with out of date laser blades did not have the punch to penetrate League armor, only gouge into it. A fifth, and sixth machine were crushed, torn apart by the cornered clone, yet had done their job by targeting the plasma thrusters, preventing the clone from escaping. In spite of the losses, the machine was relentless, continuing to pour on the plasma fire when they were not tasked to die. It's maneuverability crippled, J26 was surrounded and gunned down, Core melted to slag.

Singled out by IBIS, J46 was in much the same position, fending off suicidal assaults by heavily armed "Big White" Cores. Unlike DOVE though, IBIS processed a command core, the I-CFFF-SERRE, or Serre Core for short. Keeping it's distance, Serre deployed it's powerful arsenal of eight Orbit weapons, pouring on accurate and rapid fire laser bolts. The Big Whites flanked the clone, maintaining fire with their heavy, two-handed plasma cannons, forcing the League bastard to fight them, depleting it's own weapon bays of missiles while it alternated targets with it's Rail-rifles, destroying two and four even as it's own armor was melted under sustained plasma bolts. Primal Armor depleted and it's own shell compromised, the Serre Core switched fire modes, unleashing eight high powered and sustained laser beams from it's Orbit drones, cutting J46 to ribbons.

As for INTERNECINE, it's combat experience against the infamous and depraved Last Raven forced a desperate and hateful response against one of her unwanted bastard progeny. With unflinching resolve, the bipedal Pulverizers charged J40, firing their dual plasma cannons throughout their approach. Crossing blades with the clone, even Pulverizers, long feared by humanity even in their absence, were cut down by the heavy multipronged blades in use by the N-WGIX/v Cores. Though they were only biological drones, the League clones fought with a fury and dedication matched only by their most capable brother and their hated original. J40 fought through two, then four of the Pulverizers, before their heaviest variant was ready. The Aerial Pulverizer, armed with several heavy, rapid fire plasma cannons, and floating on an extremely expensive machine built anti-gravity unit, lined itself up, firing it's mass array of plasma cannons in a pattern that crossed shotgun and gatling gun. Under such heavy fire, J40 was torn apart and melted down.

Their lines broken and numbers dwindled by the ORCA-Machine alliance, The League clones were easily singled out and hunted down.

Even the mass wave of suicide drones sought out their own kills. Against dozens or even hundreds of drones, the J series clones might have been able to hold their own with their new NEXT. But there was nothing they could do as they were swarmed from every side by thousands and thousands of dumb AI, each with the absolute intention to strike down the enemy and end their short and ignorant lives as semi-intelligent missiles.

J27, J47, and J50 all formed a rough defensive line, firing in every direction, dropping the suicide drones by the hundreds, just bits of ruined metal falling short of their targets. But for every drone they shot down, a dozen more would inch their way closer. Not even bothering to aim anymore, as firing in any direction guaranteed a hit, the League clones fired until the barrels of their weapons melted off, firing assembly fused. Their main deterrence removed, the suicide drones slammed first into Primal Armor, forced to detonate against the thick, radioactive energy shield. From this range, the clones engaged their laser blades, taking down dozens more drones in a desperate act of defiance. When their shields were finally depleted from the relentless onslaught, the drones slammed into their armor, spelling death out of thousands of missile strikes in a matter of seconds, the three clones reduced to so many tiny pieces.

Finally at a much more manageable two-to-one, there was nothing to stop the savagery of fanatical ORCA forces and their machine allies. The surviving Cores of the three interloping AI's pulled back to provide fire support with their vast array of plasma based weaponry, while the three NEXT led the final charge.

Deciding to empty her last few nuclear rounds and rid herself of the heavy artillery cannon, May targeted J42, her rounds depleting their Primal Armor and scorching their regular armor as well. Angling her Orbit weapons for a pinpoint attack, she had them fire on J42's thrusters while they remained staggered, fusing the component, and leaving it vulnerable to a laser blade attack. Unable to properly evade, J42 was forced to turn in place, avoiding death but still taking a critical hit from May's laser blade that left it's right arm crippled. Not giving the clone the chance to counter attack, she punched it first in it's left arm, to keep it from counterattacking, then swept out it's legs with her left leg. Blade off cool down, she swung down, though the cockpit, killing the clone.

Forced on the defensive by J07, May dodged back, avoiding twin blades meant for her Core. The long years she had spent being tutored by James proved their worth, as even under assault, she managed to counterattack, throwing her right fist under the clone's guard, crushing one of it's forward thrusters. Staggered back by the hit, J07 hesitated as May brought up her fists, confident and unflaked by any enemies. The League clone tried to retaliate, both blades engaged, but May confidently blocked them with her one blade, and struck again with her right fist, pounding into it's left elbow joint, until she broke it. Both their blades on forced cooldown, May brutalized J07, her Sunshine's heavily armored fists shattering the armored paneling of the League Core. Satisfied, May aimed up with her blade, penetrating the Core, and earning another kill.

With precision expected of a machine mind, Novem attacked J03, firing it's remaining nuclear rounds at dangerously close range, close enough to strip both of their Primal Armor's. Using the blast and smoke of the relatively "small" nuclear shells to cover it's advance, through J03's guard, Novem struck first with it's right arm, knocking the clone's left arm back, allowing the laser blade on the right arm to lance through the League clone.

Looking for vengeance, J45 attempted to pounce on Novem, firing the last of it's rounds from it's Rail-rifles, scoring decent but inadequate damage against the ORCA NEXT. Dropping it's rifles and deploying blades, J45 swung out, missing as Novem evaded. Left with just their blades, J45 had the technical advantage with two to Novem's one. The main difference was in experience. J45 had a standard set of moves for optimized NEXT combat. Novem had the memory of over four hundred years of warfare, of desperate and dire battles fought between fanatical machines spoken of only in nightmares, and depraved Ravens of grand legend.

Needing only a moment, Novem dodged the desperate and armature attacks from J45, waiting for that moment where it's arms were held a little wider, and lower. It was a mistake all armature blade users made, when they were just a little too sure, a little too lazy, a little too confident. Against the clone with a machine mind, machine experience, and machine patience, J45 approached as close as it could, swinging with blades left and right, leaving air and sand baked and glassed. The very moment The League clone laxed, it's guard and stance lowered ever so slightly, Novem struck. Blade straight and true, burning through armor and mechanism alike, killing the clone with a single, well placed and well-timed thrust.

Lastly, Nineball Seraph fought a desperate two on one battle. J49 and J09 bore down on the heavily upgraded machine Core, laser blades crossed four on two. Needing to create distance to be able to focus down it's opponents one at a time, Nineball Seraph dodged back, then activated the pulse-wave feature on it's laser blades. Breaking magnetic containment mid-slash caused the "blade" to shoot out in a wide arch, surprising and staggering J09, leaving J49 alone for just a moment. Boosting forward on oversized thrusters, the machine Core broke the clone's guard, knocking it's arms back before it could deploy blades, and drove it's own laser blades through the N-WGIX/v Core.

Moving swiftly to engage J09, Nineball Seraph put it's left arm forward, planning to engage the clone one blade at a time, first to block, then to kill. Sending the command to use the left blade, the plasma torch gave a pathetic cough of sparks and a small bout of flame.

/WEAPON ERROR: LEFT LASER BLADE FUSED

Having been engaged in combat for so long, components finally started to give, especially those related to thermal based weapons.

Transitioning to block quickly with it's fortunately functioning right laser blade, Nineball Seraph was on the defensive and down another weapon. With the advance at it's critical last phase, Hustler One refused to delay for a simple weapons malfunction. Doing the same as it's archfoe had once done to it, Nineball Seraph forced J09's laser blades down, and punched it in the face with it's left arm.

Staggered back and half blinded by the unexpected blow, J09 tried to disengage, backing off to reorient itself. Even with it's one blade on cooldown, Nineball Serpah pursued, landing a thruster assisted punch with it's right arm, knocking J09 to it's back. Pinning the League Clone with it's feet, Nineball Serpah plunged it's right laser blade through the last N-WGIX/v Core currently in the A.O.

Without word or comment on their victory, the combined ORCA/Machine force ascended Tall Trunk, to secure the landing zone to invade the megafortress.


There were wreaks of shapes and sizes scattered out across the dunes. A warning was raised about their armor integrity, as they closed to engage. Half their length but twice their height, there was no doubt their might.

Standing firm between them, there lay Thunderchild.

"Your target is the Spirit Class Arms Fort Thunderchild! That's the last obstacle in our path! Cut them down!" Monika demanded, and her gunners answered affirmatively.

Great Divider fired on the looming Thunderchild, shells bouncing off it's heavy plating and missiles intercepted by hundreds of CIWS turrets.

The two titans traded volley after volley, bleeding armor and shuttering with each strike. Great Divider, having weathered so many shots, was forced to turn into the attack, in an attempt to protect their raw and punished left flank.

Moving swiftly through the dunes, Coils blazing as she came, striking missile turret one, which crashed down in sheets of flame. Sensing victory was nearing, thinking fortune must have smiled, The League started cheering, on an open channel:

"Come on Thunderchild! Come on Thunderchild!"

"Damage report!" Monika demanded, feeling the shudder of her vessel even from kilometers away.

"Missile turret one destroyed!" Serena reported.

"Mass casualties from detonation of the ready magazine in car three!" Fiona shouted. "Near two thousand crew and two hundred thousand passengers believed dead!"

"Enough of this!" Monika demanded. "Hustler One, can you kill that thing quickly!?"

"Affirmative."

"Good. All gunners, slave your fire control to Hustler One, let's end this!"

Doing as ordered, the girls gave control of their weapons over to the machine, and instantly, the railguns became more accurate, penetrating the Thunderchild's valiant heart.

As turret after turret was targeted, the unavoidable became all but certain. Having been made to maximize fire rate at the expense of safe ammo storage, the Thunderchild paid for the sins of her creators.

"Fire in block five! Block three is burning!"

"Fire in block eight! Block four is on fire now! The main shaft is taking damage! We can't control it!

"Main shaft is overheating! Temperatures are out of control! It's no good! It won't hold!"

"All hands prepare for ground evacuation! All hands, abandon vessel! Get out! Thunderchild's breaking apart!

Snaping cables and shattered steel, slapping Rails pierced the deck. Dashing hope for their deliverance, as they watched the burning wreck. With the smoke of battle settling, over graves in dunes defiled, condemned to oblivion.

Farewell, Thunderchild.

As quickly as combat had begun, it had ended, as The Thunderchild burned from the inside. Structure supports failed, leaving her kilometer long carrier decks to sag and droop into the dunes below. The silence of absent gunfire persisted for several long moments, interrupted by the periodic muted thud of internal secondary explosions, until the primary munition magazine of the defeated Arms Fort detonated. Several million tons of missiles exploded at once, reducing the once grand Thunderchild to so many metal splinters, some of which bounced off of Great Dividers armored hull harmlessly.

"Arms Fort Thunderchild destroyed." Serena calmly reported.

"W-we did it…" Yuri meekly noted.

"Hell yeah!" Natsuki cheered.

"That was…intense." Sayori sourly noted, wondering just how many more had just died. Hundreds of thousands of lives lost in so few minutes that these titans had clashed, for both sides of the battle.

"It's not over yet." Monika declared. "Now we must take Tall Trunk."

"Yeah…we're going to have to expedite that." Fiona advised. "The League are signaling for immediate reinforcement, to try and cut us off mid-invasion."

"How many units are coming to assist them?"

"Uh…all of them." Fiona grimly announced. "We're going to have units from all over the world, the entire military arm of The Leauge, baring down on us in a few hours."

"Shit…" Monika realized. "It's going to take hours just to land all of our forces on the roof. I really don't want to try and conduct an invasion with a spent Arms Fort and an enemy army at my back."

"I've got a terrible idea." Serena suggested. "There is an Arms Fort dock at the base of the structure, a big negative space we can park in and offload troops from the front, while skipping half the defenses likely waiting for us. The only problem is…they aren't going to just open the door for us, we're going to have to crash through it."

"Ah…that's…not going to be as easy as crashing into a smaller Arms Fort." Fiona advised. "To put it bluntly, that's going to fuck us up."

"We don't have a lot of choices right now. We just need to capture those Corporate Commanders forcing this war to continue, and hopefully force the rest of their armies to capitulate." Monika surmised. "We'll do it. Helm, take us on a collision course with Tall Trunk. Gunners, fire on that 'door' with everything we have, maybe we can weaken it before we hit. All hands, brace for impact."

Turning towards the Tall Trunk megafortress, the sheer size of the megastructure baffled convention. Two and a half kilometers tall and three kilometers wide on each side, the triangular super tower dwarfed Great Divider by a factor of thirty-one, and that was just it's above ground dimensions.

On approach without hesitation, the heavy guns of Great Divider fired throughout, leading the way and hoping to even put a dent in the side of a massive door that weighed nearly as much as them.

As the looming structure towered over them, with no chance to divert or escape, Monika clicked the internal com for her Arms Fort, shouting out one last warning. "All hands, brace, brace, brace!"

"This is going to be nasty!" Fiona warned, as everyone held on desperately. The hardest hit they'd experienced thus far threatened to shake their teeth loose. Emergency klaxons screamed new sounds as the very walls of their mobile fortress seemed to bend and twist out of shape. A twenty-foot-long I-beam burst out of the ceiling, embedding itself into the ground, just inches past Monika's head. Another terrible crash came a moment later, that while not as jarring, still slammed them forward as they came to an abrupt stop.

"…Damage report?" Monika demanded quietly.

"We're mostly here." Serena started. "Life support is up, reactors are scramming, and armor integrity is…fucked, but…there's red lines through the lateral structural members. She's broke her back."

"The drive train has fractured as well. We're not going to be moving under our own power again." Fiona added.

"…" Taking the information soberly, Monika bowed her head, gently patting the holographic table she'd spent the last week directing the operations of ORCA from. The Great Wall Class Arms Fort Great Divider, the largest ground-based vehicle built by The League, had served them well, becoming not just a weapon to command, but a beacon of hope, and a home.

Great Divider had given it's life for them.

"Ready the troops. I want our forces divided between three fronts. One to stick to the original plan and attack from the roof. The second to come at the main League forces from behind, to keep them pinned and off our back. And, lastly, the rest with me. We're taking this fortress. We're ending this war today."


Tall Trunk – Arms Fort Docking Bay / 1630 Hours

For the last week, the four girls born in the wrong century had been struggling to grasp at the scale of the Great Divider. The six-kilometer-long Arms Fort and it's massive internal cargo bays had been their first experience of the megastructures of the future. It was simultaneously inspiring, humbling, and terrifying.

The single room where the locomotive section had plowed into and been left partly wreaked was over a half kilometer tall and another kilometer deep and wide, easily holding the entire locomotive section like a parked car in a home garage, with enough room to spare for four more sections on either side.

As if that wasn't already baffling enough, there was roughly twenty billion tons of steel above their heads, making up the mass of the armor and the long corridors and cities that made up it's vast interior. The megafortress was so large and so dense that it was an entire nation unto itself.

And, as a precursor to the "verity" of environments within, each wall was a drab grey metal, with the occasional informational panel or airlock door. The doors themselves, not quite open yet, came in two flavors; service corridors, wide enough for two people to walk side by side; and main transport lines, tall enough to allow NEXT to pass and wide enough for six trains lines.

Having donned their ancient power armor, and armed with machine made plasma rifles, the four girls looked over the forces that would follow them into battle. The Spec Ops and Marines of ORCA, a grand total of 98 men and women, each armed and armored with similar weaponry. Five thousand of the Hustler made battle droids, standing still in matching rows across the deck of the dock. Five thousand turncoat League soldiers, finding pride and honor in service to ORCA. Lastly, thirty thousand of the lightly armed militia, driven to serve in their most desperate hour.

The rest of the forces would assault the main League forces from above and below, trying to keep them out of the battle. It was unclear exactly how many people would be in the fortress, with estimates as low as a hundred thousand and as high as ten million. In either case, that force could not be allowed to redeploy in defense of their Corporate masters.

"This is it! The final push!" Monika shouted, encouraging her troops. "We take this fortress, and we end this war once and for all!"

Besides her actual soldiers and her friends, Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki, there were two who stood out. Fiona had very light armor, and was only armed with a rifle, instead having a large radio on her back and her hands on a tactical data pad, choosing to be more useful as informational support, while also keeping one eye on James, even distantly.

Serena, on the other hand, would be finally fulfilling her role as a groundside Lynx, technically lightly armed, but only because she was all the weapons she would need.

Having stalled long enough for several engineers to cut through the locking mechanism of the main door they intended to push in from, Serena stepped forward, shoved her hands through the still smoldering gap the cutting torches had lanced through, and started to pull. She pulled slowly and wide, forcing the massive door open at a steady pace, till she could step through it and push it open as far as her arms could reach.

"Ah, sometimes it's easy to forget how monstrously strong Lynx are." Sayori commented. Then, altogether, they formed a battle line. The Combat droids spaced evenly apart with the Spec Ops and the Marines in between at the front, with the command staff just behind them, ready to rapidly respond to the battle as it progressed.

The initial push had been…surprisingly anti-climatic. The fanatical and insane ORCA attack had left The League momentary unprepared, allowing ORCA to establish a significant and stable foothold within the fortress.

When resistance did meet the main ORCA advance, they hadn't even finished erecting an emergency barricade out of empty crates.

"Contact front!" Clark had shouted, opening fire with the rest of the front line. Their accurate fire with the heavy plasma weapons melting through the meager and unprepared defenses. "Clear!"

Getting to the impromptu line The League had raised, their state became clear.

"Commander, looks like these were auxiliary troops. Nothing heavier than a carbine, and their defenses were lacking." Spec Ops Chavez spoke up.

"Good, keep advancing!" Monika demanded. The main force of ORCA continued to push down the primary transport line, which wrapped around the interior perimeter of the fortress, with ramps leading further down, deeper and deeper.

"Hey, how much further do we have to go?" Natsuki complained.

"The League appears to be hold up in the lowest residential block, another half kilometer down." Fiona noted.

"Ah…" Sayori voiced her annoyance as well.

"We should be fortunate that resistance has been so light thus far." Yuri added.

"Hey Yuri-?" Monika started to say something.

"Contact!" That had been the replacement leader of the Marines, a tiny but powerful woman named Sergeant Kuribayashi. She'd been muscling her way forward, hoping to get some action after her forces had been decimated by an Arms Fort in their last battle.

The line before them was significantly better than the last one, with the erected barricades actually in place now. The League soldiers behind them in proper cover and armed well enough, with at least two heavy machine guns covering the wide hall.

Yet even through the heavy fire, the ORCA/Machine Alliance advanced. The humans were a step back from the front line, letting the Combat droids absorb the gun fire with their armored frames. This was where they experienced their first casualties, as several of the droids were overwhelmed with gunfire, being cut down as their metal bodies were torn apart.

Even so, the machines pushed on, the humans right beside them. Overwhelming the line with plasma, their barricades torn down, and dozens more League troops lay dead.

"Commander! These troops appear to be League regulars!" Spec Ops Kozuki noted.

"Damn! Either they are getting troops down the elevators, or they had these guys in reserve." Monika realized. "What else are we expected to run into?"

"I'm hoping nothing more than powered armor infantry, but we might expect some armored vehicles. Fortunately, our plasma rifles have some anti-vehicle capabilities." Serena explained.

"Then let's hope for the former." Monika decided, urging her forces to keep advancing. Down into the next level, the Combat droids began to push round the corner of the hall…only to be evaporated by a massive bolt of heavy blue plasma, which kept going through them and into wall behind them. It was fortunate that no humans had been caught in the blast, but dozens of machines had been lost.

"Shit! What the hell was that!?" Monika demanded, feeling her eyebrows singe with heat even from the spot in cover.

"I'll be damned, they have a Procyon set up!" Serena complained.

"A what?!"

"Heavy plasma artillery!" Serena explained quickly, pulling up a hologram from a datapad, showing a massive truck, twice the width and twice the length of an eighteen-wheeler, with a gigantic plasma cannon just as large on it's trailer bed.

"Operator to Strayed! Can you hear me!? Please respond!? Dammit!" Fiona sneered.

"What is it?! Is James okay?!" Sayori questioned.

"Last I checked, yeah. He just shot down the escorts, but that plasma shot shorted my radio, I've only got local connection left." Fiona explained. "He's going to be on his own, now."

"In any event, we are going to have to do something about that cannon." Yuri advised.

"Yeah. What about these service corridors?" Natsuki suggested.

"That was my idea too, but I'll bet you anything The League already have them secured." Shaking her head, Monika decided on a course of action. "Hustler, keep pressure on that cannon! It's highly mobile, and I'd rather not have to chase it the rest of this battle. Everyone else, ready for close range engagement, we are pushing up through these halls!"

Her orders given, the Combat droids rounded the dangerous corner again, moving with haste to spread their numbers wide and keep the cannon from focus firing on them. Having been aimed at the corner, the Procyon fired, catching the trailing end of the first group, destroying two droids and half melting a third.

Before she could be told otherwise, Sayori rushed forward, grabbing the partly melted Combat droid, and pulled it back into cover.

"Hey, are you okay?" She asked it, seeing how nearly half it's body had been melted into slag, it's left arm and leg gone and it's once pristine armor sagging from heat.

The Combat droid looked up at her oddly, or as oddly as a machine could. "These units were made to be expendable, Sayori. They die so that you humans will not have to. Do not waste your time with them."

"If you know anything about me, you know that I cannot do that." Sayori assured the machine.

"Come on Sayori. We need to keep moving." Monika urged her, gently grabbing her shoulder to pull her along.

Still in a transport and utility section of the fortress, the hallways leading off the main line were filled with conduit, cables, and storage rooms. Being fairly close to the interchange to the floor below, there weren't as many specialized facilities in this section, meaning it was a lot of sub-units with their own room, each of which could contain a potential ambush.

Opening the door to the hall on this section, they were surprised to find an improvised bunker with multiple levels at the end of the hall, guarding the flank to the Procyon cannon. Feeling something like haste in their actions, the forces of ORCA responded by firing several high explosive rockets down the hall, destroying the position and hopefully anyone manning it.

Pushing down the hall a step behind her soldiers, Monika and her command staff assisted them in room clearing. Sometimes they found nothing, clearing the room in seconds. Other times however, a warning that James had instilled in them from the very first moment they had taken on the burden of ORCA became all too clear.

"'Don't go into a room too fast kids. The room eats you.'"

Stacking up for the next room to be cleared, Monika whispered to herself. "'Doors and corners. Doors and corners.'" A quick peak behind herself noted the same mantra repeated silently on her friend's lips, followed by their nods of approval.

It was one thing to send out their Lynx with orders to kill. It was one thing to stand in a CIC and give the order to fire. It was an entirely different experience to breach a room, and meet the enemy at close range.

Kicking the door down, Monika charged in, sidearm raised, already sweeping left and right, putting her back against the near wall while she scanned the blind spots. Like many of the rooms they had cleared, this one had equipment that served as cover. Quickly and confidently she cleared her sector, all the while Sayori stepped away from her, clearing an opposite sector, while Yuri and Natsuki followed and double checked.

It seemed this room was not clear as someone behind the mechanical equipment got a shot off, missing by inches due to the expedient violence of their entrance. Returning fire, Monika kept moving, knowing she was mostly just acting as a target while also suppressing the enemy, the fully automatic Glock 90 proving it's worth at close range.

Several more gunmen revealed themselves, firing at her, but her speed and armor prevented her from being hurt, while her friends made sure to target and kill the enemy when they revealed themselves.

"Clear!" Sayori had shouted from the opposite corner of the room. Relaxing for just a second, they let out a sigh of relief, reloaded if necessary, then exited the room, stacking up to clear the next one. Again, and again, until the forward units had reached the position of the improvised bunker, being little more than some cleverly stacked crates. It was from the forward units that some much needed good news had come.

"Commander! We've succeeded in eliminating the cannon." That had been Kuribayashi, the small woman feeling rather proud of herself.

"Excellent. Any casualties?" Monika questioned.

"Some injuries on our end, though our machines have lost several hundred droids."

"…Understood. Let's get back to it, and break The League."

Yet with each level down, the fighting became more intense. More units, more barricades and more crates holding the line against the attack.

Against such a force of ORCA fanatics and cruel machines, the average soldiers of The League didn't stand a chance.

Down another heavily fortified hallway, they pushed. Machines and Marines, breaking the line. Plasma rifles doing terrible things to the human form; burning it, melting it, killing not by physical trauma, but by the horror of being cooked alive in their own skin.

Catching the enemy at close range, they saw the brutality of the machines firsthand. Deploying their arm mounted blades, the machines went over the line, plunging cold metal through humans, lifting them up for all to see. Reaching out with metal claws, squeezing and breaking bones and rending forms; reminding all of the horrors of a man-machine war, of powerful and deadly machines reducing humans to so much ruined meat.

Even so, right in the middle of the carnage, ORCA charged. Even as machines spilt fellow human blood, ORCA fanatics saw this horror, feeling only jealousy. As silent machines did their work, ORCA raged, shouting and fighting and tearing into League lines with hateful abandon.

Even the young girls, who only three years before by their count, had played carefree as members of a Literature Club; now, they were only soldiers, radicals, and desperate fanatics. Each level down allowing them to bask in depraved violence.


They had been fighting continuously for nearly an hour, traversing down so many long corridors they were becoming sick of it. Breaking so many corpses that their spilled blood began to seep back, following them down, and pooling deeper and deeper with each level they cleared.

"How much further?" Natsuki complained sourly.

"Should just be three more levels." Fiona assured her. "Then we should reach the level the Corporates are holed up on."

"Ah, good." Yuri noted. "Our troops are getting a little thin."

True enough, the constant contact with the enemy had drained their own numbers. Suffering losses to men and machines. The machines, at least, were very good at field repairs, cannibalizing destroyed units in order to fully repair damaged units, offering limited reinforcements.

Humans were somewhat more difficult to replace. A handful of the heavy armored ORCA troops had suffered injury, being sidelined from the battle. The less well armored turncoat League troops that reinforced the line had actually suffered significant casualties, but none so much that they wouldn't be able to complete the mission.

The next level down proved the most difficult so far. League troops had been busy dragging out containers and boxes and barricades, making a full scale trenchworks down the hall, with multiple layers of defense preventing advance.

"Seems they're getting a lot of reinforcement. Is it the elevators?" Sayori guessed.

"That was my assessment too." Yuri agreed. "They're bringing troops down from the upper levels to bolster their lines here."

"However they're doing it is going to mess us up. We have to break their lines." Monika declared. "Hmm, you remember how they broke the trenches five centuries ago?"

"Mmm." Yuri nodded in understanding. "They sent in the tanks."

Smiling cruelly, Monika eagerly called a name. "Serena! You're up!"

"Oh, good. I was worried you'd forgotten about me." Serena sarcastically commented, cracking her neck as she assessed the League formations. "Hey machine! How many of your little murder bots do you have left?" She asked the nearest Combat droid.

"Roughly half."

"Well, be prepared to lose about half of that too." Serena suggested. "Keep your unit's close, we're going to charge the lines, and break them."

"Affirmative."

"The rest of you, give me some cover." Serena demanded, stealing a pair of plasma rifles from nearby Combat droids.

"Right, all of you heard Ms. Haze! Make a firing line!" Monika ordered the rest of the humans at the front.

With what few preparations they could complete in just over a minute, Serena took her place at the front, and charged, a thousand Combat droids following her. Raising her plasma rifles up to fire on the center of the first barricade, she emptied the capacitors for each weapon, dropping them as she ran. All around her, the machines that followed laid down their own suppressive fire as they approached the line. Braving machine gun fire that cut down many of her mechanical allies, Serena approached the barricade that marked The League front line, put her arms up, and went through the weakened concrete barrier.

The melted and shattered concrete that failed to stop an ORCA Lynx served momentarily as a screen, disorienting League troops not yet aware that death was a step away.

Serena tore through the troops at this line, crushing men and women underfoot, even as accursed machines followed behind, cutting down League troops forced to hold a line.

Behind that first line was a container, acting as cover for the next series of defenses The League had erected. With great brutality, Serena took position at the side of it, hooking her fingers under it, and lifting with all her might. The machines immediately understanding her intent, copied her, flipping the container on it's side, crushing dozens of League troops on the other side. Then, they pushed the flipped container, opening a route into the rest of the improvised defenses.

"The front line has broken! Advance!" Monika shouted, urging her troops forward, stepping over the fallen forms of hundreds of machines that had been destroyed in this advance. Pushing forward and engaging the League at point blank range, the fanatics of ORCA once again proved their worth, breaking bodies and will.

"They're retreating!"

"Keep it going! Kill them all!"

The battle was in their favor, but it would be close. The attrition rates for the turncoat League troops and the machines was considerably high, and the militia were busy clearing each and every room on each level, so that Monika could push the main force down the main transport line. Now, just two more levels were left before they finally broke through to the corporate block.

The gate leading into the next level was lowered, but considering that an enemy was never supposed to get this deep into the fortress, the controls to open it were easy to access.

"Every level down The League is considerably more prepared." Monika noted. "Any idea what lays in wait?"

"I'm hoping noting more dangerous than another Procyon, but who's to say?" Fiona advised, waiting behind her as they waited for the door to open.

The next hallway was nearly empty, save for the one thing that could stop ORCA. Fortunately, not an Armored Core, but nearly bad enough in the form of five men.

J51.

J52.

J53.

J54.

J55.

Dressed in their League blue coats and carrying ridiculously large ammunition bins on their backs, the five James clones raised their M2…no…M3 Browning .50 caliber machineguns against the assaulting force. With a flash and thunder, they opened up, with a combined rate of fire of six thousand rounds a minute.

Men and machines were cut down under such a brutal assault, with only the heavily armored ORCA troops taking effective cover in time.

"Shit what the fuck! Why are there more!?" Natsuki exclaimed.

"Hell if I know! I didn't know The League had a few in reserve!" Fiona defended.

"I'm really regretting not having a tank or two right now!" Monika added annoyed.

"I can't get through that!" Serena complained.

"We're just going to have to wait until they are out of ammo!" Yuri realized.

"Nine! Can you do anything!?" Sayori begged.

"Negative. All I can do is slow them down, and keep them off your back for a few more minutes." The AI explained, doing just that. Sacrificing more of it's droids to the firing line, their plasma rifles being little more than a nuisance to the thick skin of Cultivaters.

The League super soldiers kept up their fire for a solid two minutes, that forced ORCA to bear further casualties. Most of their turncoat League and Machine combat units had been lost, leaving a meager force of a few dozen ORCA elite and a few hundred machines.

Their heavy machine guns running dry, the clones dropped the weapons, advancing forward at a slow and steady rate. Bringing up anti-tank missiles against the clones proved fruitless, as they saw the attack coming and dodged away, wasting those attacks.

"We have to retreat." Fiona bit sourly.

"But we've come so far! If we pull back The League will reinforce this position, and we will not get through again!" Monika reasoned, still prepared even against certain death.

"She's right." Serena bowed her head in thought. "I might be able to take two, rest of you could do me a favor and slow the others down."

"We have our High Frequency knives, we might just be able to hurt them!" Yuri suggested.

"…I'm not going to order anyone to face them…not like this." Monika decided. "But neither can I stop anyone from trying."

"It's the only chance we have." Sayori surmised. "We go together. Get past them. End this war."

"…" Nodding to her left and to her right, to friends new and old, Monika smiled, then broke from cover.

There was no need to run, not against an enemy as patient as them. Just long and certain strides towards a dangerous and depraved enemy. Serena took to the front of their advance, being the toughest and strongest of anyone there, pushing forward to meet the clones with a closed and thrown fist.

The middle clone, J53, raised it's hands and caught her punch, staring her down emotionlessly. Serena released an annoyed sigh, bowing her head slightly, backing off to kick at the knee of J54, getting it's attention on her. Caught in a two on one battle like she planned, Serena prepared to hold her ground.

The rest of ORCA's soldiers stood to oppose J51 and J52, surrounding the two clones cautiously. Desperately hoping the power armor they wore would hold out for long enough to stop the enemy.

That left J55 for the four girls in the wrong century and Fiona to oppose.

"Eh…it's weird. Fighting someone with his face." Sayori grimaced.

"I know how you feel, but remember what I said." Fiona reminded her. "These are just drones, mindless slaves to The League. We're doing these abominations a favor, putting them out of their misery."

"Mmm…" Sayori hummed in unpleasant agreement.

"Hey uh…how exactly are we going to kill something that's basically a Lynx for speed and strength?" Natsuki wondered skeptically.

"We just keep stabbing and stabbing until they stop moving." Yuri answered far too enthusiastically.

"Pretty much." Fiona confirmed, taking a rifle into her hands. "Just follow my instructions, and we might just survive."

Doing their best to surround the clone, the four girls took out their knives, the only weapons they had that stood a chance at hurting it.

Monika started to attack, getting within feet of the clone, then stepped back. Beside her, Yuri did the same, getting the clones attention on herself, silently threatening it. This allowed Sayori to get behind it, sinking her blade a few inches deep, then needing to jump back as the clone lashed out, nearly taking her head.

"Woah! It's fast!" Sayori noted worriedly. Beside her, Natsuki also committed a false charge, turning the clone around for Yuri to get her blade in a few inches, before she too was forced to dodge away.

Monika started to try her false charge again, before Fiona's words interrupted her. "Don't form a pattern girls. These things may not be sentient, but they're not stupid either." The end of her sentence was marked with a short burst of gunfire directed towards the clone's head, forcing it to regard her as a threat.

Understanding her reasoning, Monika stepped towards the clone, then stopped. In response, the clone immediately leapt back while lashing out at nothing, to which Monika completed her charge, stabbing the clone briefly before it responded to her attack.

"That would have definitely killed one of us." She realized.

"Yeah." Fiona grimaced. "Generally a really bad idea to be doing what we are doing, but…not much choice."

Natsuki tried to attack from behind again, but this time, the clone caught her.

"Eep!" Natsuki squeaked in alarm, triggering her armor's release, allowing her to fall backwards out of it's grasp. With both hands firmly on her armor, J55 pulled it's hands wide, tearing metal and mechanisms apart easily.

"That would have been very nasty. Good job getting out of that armor, now get out of there." Fiona commented again, shooting her rifle again.

The clone turned away from Yuri, allowing her to attack it briefly from behind. It lashed out, just as Sayori stepped up towards it. It was fortunate that she didn't follow through, as it lashed out in her direction next, causing her to recoil fearfully.

Glancing over at the other four clones, Monika hoped the rest of her forces were holding out well enough.

They were not.

J51 and J52 were tearing through her soldiers, reducing brave men and women to broken forms, writing in pain or out cold dead. Serena engaged with J53, while J54 was briefly distracted by a few stray combat droids.

A long piece of rebar in one hand and a knife in the other, Serena alternated between beating the clone in the head and stabbing it in the chest. J53 collapsed to the ground, taking hits to the face, before it reached up and caught Serena's wrist, stopping her attack. She tried to stab it with her other arm, only for that wrist to be caught as well. Her arms forced apart, Serena was forced to take a headbutt that put her on the ground.

Meanwhile, J54 tore through the machines, the AI built Combat droids being just as worthless as humans against Cultivaters. They certainly tried to resist, firing with plasma rifles, and blocking attacks with their blades; but J54 was much stronger, catching droids and tearing them apart. One droid, torn in half and missing an arm, kept firing with it's rifle, even as J54 stalked up to it, kicked away it's gun, and crushed it's head under it's boot.

"We aren't killing these things fast enough." Monika announced grimly. "They're going to tear us all apart by the time we can even stab one to death."

"You have a clever plan then, Monika?" Yuri questioned.

"Oh…maybe a stupid one." Monika smiled regretfully. "Hey Fiona, didn't your husband say something along the lines of 'killing an enemy is worth losing an arm for'?"

"…No…No don't do it Monika!" Fiona warned as her eyes went wide.

Switching her knife to her left hand, Monika attacked J55 with an overhead stab, only for her left arm to be caught. Even expecting the pain did nothing to prepare her for the feeling of her ulna and radius being crushed into dust.

Screaming angrily so as not to be overwhelmed by the pain, Monika then reached up with her right arm, and grabbed J55 by the throat. It tried to stop her, grabbing her right wrist. Fortunately, her right arm was just as strong as it was, and she proved this by lifting the clone by the throat into the air.

The opportunity was not lost by her friends, as all four near her jumped into action. Fiona ran right up behind her, pointing her rifle above Monika's head, and fired directly into J55's face, disorienting it. Yuri and Natsuki ran up beside her, repeatedly stabbing the clone in the chest with their black knives. Sayori, on the other hand, leapt onto J55's back, stabbing it repeatedly in the neck.

They were only able to coordinate this assault for as long as Fiona had bullets in her gun, which was not very long. A second after Fiona stopped firing, J55 kicked Monika and Yuri back, while it grabbed Sayori off of it's back, throwing her towards them with a heavy crash, damaging all of their power armor. Fiona and Natsuki smartly backed off, as the clone stepped towards them…then stopped, and collapsed to it's knees.

Even shooting it directly in the face with a full rifle magazine had only taken one of it's eyes, while stabbing it dozens of times had barely slowed and injured it. Sluggishly, with confused and uncertain movements, the clone hesitated with it's next move.

That hesitation was more than enough time for Sayori to eject her armor, round behind the clone, and stab it in the base of the neck, severing it's spine. Remembering that it had a second "brain", she then stabbed it in the base of the spine as well.

Fighting to stay conscious, Monika was helped out of her armor, an unbelievable amount of pain in her left arm. About half-way down the length of her forearm, her arm went very floppy where the bone was the consistency of sand.

"Goddammit Monika!" Fiona cursed, applying medical shots to stabilize her. "We've got to get you out of here!"

"Just! Sling it!" Monika demanded, trying to keep an eye on the battle. Even with one clone dead, things were still not in their favor. J51 was slowly stalking the survivors, while J52 was approaching them. J53 and J54 were working together, to beat Serena senseless, with only her own stubborn will keeping her going.

"What the hell did we accomplish?" Natsuki questioned, seeing the dire state of the battle still largely against their favor, between the slowly approaching clone and their rapidly dwindling troops.

"We need to get out of here." Yuri declared, helping Monika stand.

"No!" Monika spat, baring her teeth, her left arm secured in a sling. "I made a vow to not take one step back against The League!"

"Monika!" Sayori shouted. "I know you think you need to fight the whole League on your own, but you're not going to win against a clone! With no armor and one arm!"

"I've got no choice in the matter." Monika bowed her head in thought. "I've got no reinforcements to call in time, and enemy reinforcements rapidly approaching. We are just a floor away from The League's last stronghold…we will never get as far as this if we step back now." Slowly moving forward with a blade in her right hand, Monika made to confront J52.

She was interrupted as a familiar shade of green suddenly burst in front of her, knocking the slightly injured clone to the ground.

"Your optimism is almost cute if it weren't so stupid." May criticized. "Why don't you just let me do most of the heavy lifting from here on out?"

"M-May!" Monika realized. "You're supposed to be attacking the roof forces!"

"Err yeah, about that." May cocked her head lazily as she half looked back. As she did, Novem shot by next to her, rushing forward to punch J54 away from Serena. "Me and Novem decided to cut a line through the defenders, so we could get down here to support you. You didn't think you were going to leave us out of the final battle as you ended The League, did you?"

"…" Reassessing the battle, things suddenly looked much fairer. J52 for May, J53 for Serena, and J54 for Novem. That just left J51, who had already been stabbed at least a few dozen times by ORCA fanatics. With a sick and excited smile, Monika began to shout, "This battle is not over yet! We've still got a chance! If it wears League colors, then put it down!"

Her battle cry seemingly rejuvenated her few surviving forces, the knowledge that victory was still within their grasp driving them back against the meat grinder of League Cultivaters.

The former J17, Novem, fought with equal strength against J54, but with infinitely more experience. Matched for speed and brutality, Novem struck strategically, slowing the newer model at every opportunity, striking at it's joints to knock it off balance. An efficient back and forth caught J54 off guard, allowing Novem to slam it's head against it's knee. Knowing the capabilities of these cloned units, the next strike from Novem was from a flattened hand, rigid as a blade, aimed at the other clones neck. With a straight jab with all it's strength, Novem penetrated J54's neck, and grasped it's spine, squeezing it. Placing it's other hand on J54's shoulder, Novem wrenched it's head free.

Using her smaller size to her advantage, May kept close to J52, striking fast where she could do the most damage. Not being able to hit as hard as Novem, she focused on just knocking J52's limbs aside, or striking at it's joints. Managing to knock the clone to the ground, May dragged them over a set of train tracks, then slammed her foot down, breaking it's neck. Enough redundant systems survived, allowing the clone to slowly hobble to it's feet with a floppy, hanging head. Taking out one of her knives, May threw it out, landing it dead center of J52's chest, then rushed it, so that she could kick the knife through it, where it then severed the clone's spine.

Having already traded blows with J53, Serena went right back to work, knocking the clone about with just as much rage and experience as when she started. Delivering a particularly nasty punch to the side of the clone's jaw, the Original followed up with a quick uppercut, causing J53 to bite off it's own tongue. Grabbing the stunned clone by the head, she slammed it into her knee, then elbowed it in the back of the head, forcing it into the ground. Taking a knife, she dragged it up the center of it's back, reached down with her other hand, and took it's spine out.

Having already been injured fighting off most of ORCA's infantry, J51 stood ready to defend itself again. Even as it threw soldiers and droids off of itself, sometimes whole, sometimes in half, Monika approached slow and steady, never a step faster than needed. With a calm and accurate thrust, Monika forced her blade through J51's right eye, down to the hilt. A kill to any human, this was only a nasty lobotomy to a Cultivater. What truly killed it was every surviving member of ORCA pouncing on it, driving their knives into it over and over again.

Looking upon who was left, Monika frowned. Herself, Sayori, Natsuki, Yuri, Fiona, Serena, May, Novem, Clark, Kozuki, Kuribayashi, and two Combat droids. All the rest injured, damaged, destroyed, or dead.

Thirteen. Thirteen of ORCA, left to break The League.

Silently, Monika led them down to the last level, the final obstacle to their path. Peering down the hall was met with sobering reality. The League had reinforced this position as best they could, with at least a whole battalion of their soldiers guarding the way. Improvised bunkers, machine guns, power armor…she didn't even have both arms.

A sense of dread and defeat washed over her. Even with three Lynx, they couldn't be expected to cut through all of that. A step short of victory, a bridge too far.

"Monika…Monika what do we do?!" Sayori shouted.

"…"

"Hey uh, commander, we need an order. Do we push or what?" May questioned.

"…"

"Monika?" Novem questioned, ready to go.

"…I uh…" Monika backed up against the wall, looking up solemnly. "This is the end of the line. We just…don't have the forces to push the rest of the way."

"You're giving up now?" Yuri questioned. "Our goal is right there."

"Stepping out into that corridor is suicide, I don't see how we get out of this one alive."

Clark knelt by her side, a hard but certain look on his face. "Kid, we've been on a suicide run ever since we joined ORCA. Doesn't matter what happens to us when we step out into that hall, this has always been the mission."

"I've gotten more than my fill of vengeance fighting under you. I don't intend to stand down now." Kozuki praised.

"Come on, you apes want to live forever?" Kuribayashi smiled widely.

"We won't know unless we try." May nodded.

"Shit…I'm down. It's worth a shot." Serena added.

"It's not my mission, but it's damn worth it." Fiona confirmed.

"If we don't do this, then what the hell are we going to do?" Natsuki argued.

"And there's no one else I'd do it for." Yuri closed her eyes, nodding certainly.

"Monika, we've come this far, faced death so many times. Proved that we will defy The League at every step of the way." Sayori said, right by her side. "This is our burden, and we carry it gladly."

Bowing her head as she bared her teeth, Monika steeled herself, certain it would be her last order, the one that would surely kill them all.

Sucking in her breath as she made her choice, Monika stopped, interrupted by an old sound she knew too well.

Screaming.

But…not her own, and not her imagination. The sound forcing her to look up, past where she and her forces had cleared.

"What…is that?"

Her question forced everyone to acknowledge it, turning back in the same direction with equal confusion.

Except Novem. Novem nodded.

"Ah…As I had hoped."

"What…?" Monika turned to the mind representing Hustler One's will.

Pointing a thumb at the two combat droids, Novem explained. "I've been having my forces livestream our progress the entire time back to the civilians on the Arms Fort."

"Y-You!" Monika's eyes widened with an accusing glare. "You recruited the civilians?!"

"No, I simply showed them the truth, and gave them a choice. Sit back, and let us do our job, or…"

The rest of the answer came as a mass of humans in a most desperate state. Crazed, wrathful women, their children stumbling in the hall with tears, their men bitter and angry, the well-off rubbing shoulders with beggars and outcast. The crazed barked and howled, while the sick foamed from the mouth, and here and there were wounded soldiers, as motivated as the rest.

Never before in the history of the world, had such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together. This was no disciplined march, it was a stampede, without order and without a go, nine million people unarmed and un-provisioned driving headlong.

It was the beginning of the rout of The League. Of the massacre of corporate kind.


/COM/J24: "You're a slave to history. Even after Great Destruction, you fight against the only one who can guarantee the future of your people. You are solely responsible for this."

/NO MISSION DATA FOUND

/DAY 158,602 OF THE CURRENT CONTRACT

\\ERROR: REGIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL DATA COLLECTION MODULE TIMED OUT\\

-CAUTION-

\\J24\\

Having lured the three League Cultivaters far enough from Tall Trunk that they could no longer be a factor in that battle, Strayed finally turned around, engaging J01, J02, and J24. Burning towards each other at hypersonic speeds, they climbed up as they passed, entering into a dogfight. Strayed, using an 01-Athena Core with the R1-YU/MU flight unit and VOB MK 2; while J24 used a N-WGIX/v NEXT and Vortex Orbit Core.

/COM/J24: "What do you have to show for yourself merc? Blood? Gold? A broken throne? I will bury you so completely, the Earth will turn over a thousand times before your body is dug up."

/COM/JK-189: "Yeah, well I've had my fill of going home without wings."

With J24 fighting to stay on it's tail, Strayed had to keep turning, fighting to stay out of the firing arc of missiles fired dozens at a time.

-MISSILE ALERT-

-MISSILE ALERT-

-MISSILE ALERT-

/COM/J24: "You can't run! You can't hide! You made this decision long ago! You can't back out of this deal!"

/COM/JK-189: "You fired up? Come shoot me down!"

Struggling to get the forward firing Strafing lasers on targets, Strayed kept the engines burning at full throttle, pushing them to the extreme limit of what even Lynx could endure. All the while, J24 easily stayed close, firing missiles constantly and stray plasma bolts from it's own five Strafing Lasers.

/COM/J24: "I'm a soldier! You think I take joy in fighting the innocent!? Killing those who can't fight back!? If you hadn't shown up, I wouldn't be reduced to this!"

/COM/JK-189: "There's no mercy in war. People live and people die, that's all there is to it."

Stayed would have to eliminate the escorts before it could even get close to J24. Using all it's thrusters to spin in place even while traveling at high Mach, it managed a short burst of accurate Strafing Laser fire, the heavy bolts staggering J02, leaving it open for a nuclear missile to annihilate.

/COM/JK-189: "It takes more than just a fancy Next to fly like that. You gotta fight for what you believe in!"

Down to two on one, the odds were a little better. With a little more room to maneuver, Strayed was able to evade J24 for just a second, to start lining up on the other clone.

/COM/JK-189: "Those who survive a long time on the battlefield start to think they're invincible. I bet you do too buddy."

Much the same, Strayed was able to repeat the process against J01. Heavy plasma where it could not evade, and a nuclear missile to put it down.

/COM/JK-189: "Now things are nice and even!"

Able to fight one on one, there was nowhere J24 could go that Strayed would not know. Strayed fought then to get close to what constituted the "behind" of J24's unit.

/COM/JK-189: "Let's get up close and personal!"

Firing from dangerously close, Strayed once again repeated the steps it had just used against the other clones, a burst of plasma to weaken shields and a heavy two megaton nuclear missile to do the damage.

Except that the VOC protected J24 so well that two megatons did nothing more than scorch it's paint. Tanking the hit without complaint, J24 decided that nothing would be held back in this fight.

/COM/FIONA: "Opera- to Strayed! Can y- me! Please -!"

/LOG/OPERATOR\FIONA: - CONNECTION LOST –

/COM/J24: "Me and you now. No distractions. No wingman. No war. Just me and you. Whoever wins is the best pilot."

/COM/JK-189: "I don't have time for that, it's every man for himself."

/COM/J24: "Every safety is coming off. No second chances."

/COM/JK-189: "No manual is going to tell you how to fight this battle. Now we find out who's number one!"

Even boasting as it was, the loss of the high-gain connection to Operator Fiona robbed them of valuable predictive data that could have ended this battle a few steps earlier. J24 was right, this had truly come down to just the two of them.

/COM/J24: "Strayed, you use a name that means nothing, yet what do you fight for? The dead!? The League fought for the future of this world, and you denied them that-"

/COM/JK-189: "While you're up here fighting for the future, tons of blood is being shed on the ground! Some future-"

/COM/J24: "The people of the Earth! Do you know what you've taken from them!? Their hope! And for what!? To sustain humanity!? What!? You think you can fight this war again in fifty years time!? Do you really think history will see it your way!?"

/COM/JK-189: "You think you can stop bloodshed by shedding more blood!? Flying with those ideas swimming around in your head is going to get you killed! This world is a lost cause!"

Enraged and desiring their death more than anything, J24 moved far quicker than Strayed could ever imagine, trying to occupy every firing position all at once, and using not just mass volleys of missiles, but near constant Strafing Laser and Rail-rifle fire, filling the air with so many long lines of melted, orange dust.

/COM/J24: "You don't even care why you're here!"

/COM/JK-189: "I'm only here to do what I was paid to do."

With equal parts desperation and rage, Strayed was forced to switch tactics. It could not compete with the destructive output of the VOC, a weapon designed to kill the military of whole worlds. So, it lined up the best shot it could, and fired three nuclear missiles at once. Knowing that J24 wouldn't allow any of them to actually hit, Strayed sent the missiles in a wide pattern, saturating the entire sky in heat and light, right on top of J24.

The first layer of J24's Primal Armor was stripped away.

/COM/J24: "How does it feel to not have a home? To not have borders to define yourself against the world?"

/COM/JK-189: "Can you see any borders from here? What has borders given us? You and I are opposite sides of the same coin!"

Dodging through the incredibly dense wall of plasma and Rail fire was nearly impossible, even for Strayed. A bolt of heavy plasma struck the nose of the VOB, while a Railgun round went through one of the wings. Fortunately, the VOB MK 2 was also a weapon designed to cause massive damage and survive it as well. Though perhaps not much longer.

/COM/J24: "The Great Destructions erased mankind before. Our chance to start again! And this is how you deal with it!?"

/COM/JK-189: "It's not over. This is where it all starts. You know what I'm talking about, right?"

Taking a necessary risk, Strayed spun back into the fire, firing the next wave of three missiles on top of J24, but not before the League clone put several bolts of plasma into the VOB's engine block. Something inside it caught fire, but hadn't killed it just yet.

The second layer of Primal Armor on J24's VOC was removed.

/COM/J24: "You drove me to this! This death and destruction over the Earth! Billions of lives lost! …So many ghosts. Kill me! Or be killed!"

/COM/JK-189: "Let's take care of business."

Even as alarms screamed and warning lights flashed, indicating how close the VOB was to exploding, Strayed spun it around, much to the structural alarms dismay. Reversing so hard that even it could barely hold on at five hundred Gs, Strayed fired the last of it's nuclear missiles, perhaps from a distance too close.

It had definitely removed the VOC from J24, the five spinning structures losing magnetic cohesion, falling away from the N-WGIX/v Core. However, the critical warning for Strayed's VOB also sounded, forcing it to eject the unit before it's independent fusion reactor detonated.

Their super weapons destroyed, they still had their NEXT, and they intended to use them to their full capacity.

/COM/J24: "This is my home!"

/COM/JK-189: "Is that right? Just look at the view. The sky is on fire! What a joke."

Fighting again on equal footing, they traded fire with every weapon they had. J24's Rail-rifles leaving long lines of melted dust in their wake, while missiles continued to pour from it's internal racks. Strayed's OGOTO fired nuclear shells in air-burst mode, leaving little spheres of nuclear fire, while it's XCG-B050 four barreled chain gun, heavily upgraded, fired with gatling speed, certain to melt off it's own barrels by the time it's ammo ran out, while filling the sky with high velocity 50mm tracers.

/COM/J24: "Here we are! Fighting for the Earth's soul! That's the deal you made, right?"

/COM/JK-189: "Negative, I'm sorry! I've never been fond of the limelight."

Twisting and turning at speeds and angles that even challenged a Lynx of it's caliber, Strayed matched J24 in every capacity, scoring hits as each of them scorched the sky, in a storm of bullets and fire.

/COM/JK-189: "It's pretty ironic buddy, a couple of dogs like us fighting the last battle."

/COM/J24: "What happens when you shoot me down? Can you even think? Who will you turn to? Where will you go? We both know how this ends."

/COM/JK-189: "The tides should turn once they take the heads off The League. They've got a reason to fight. The will of those four is a powerful thing!"

Needing an advantage, Strayed deployed the sixteen orbit drones from their racks, setting half of them to defense against missiles, while the other half targeted J24, trying to lance it out of the sky. Now, for a brief moment, it was Strayed who overwhelmed J24 with incoming fire.

/COM/J24: "Kill me! Kill me and see what happens to this world!"

/COM/JK-189: "If you get shot down…crash where I can't see."

/COM/J24: "Either way! Your life ends today!"

/COM/JK-189: "Fire away coward!"

For two experts in war, one born to it, the other made for it, a battle on equal footing would be a long and painful process, bleeding the enemy slow until a critical hit might strike them down. Strayed had the advantage, but J24 was slowly adapting, first by targeting the orbit drones, shooting them down while Strayed strafed it with it's back mounted weapons.

/COM/J24: "And my brothers…do you think they deserved it?!"

/COM/JK-189: "Those guys are history. I was hoping for more of a challenge. This is no playground. Mess around up here and you'll be the first to go down."

/COM/J24: "The League might try to forget about you. But I won't. This is for the good of the world!"

/COM/JK-189: "A dead man's words hold no meaning."

Orbit drones shot down, and back mounted weapons running dry, Strayed was running out of ways to attack. Firing off the last of their ordnance, Strayed managed to breach the Primal Armor of J24, being forced to switch to blades. Fortunately, the twin Moonlights on Strayed's arms had Pulse-Wave upgrades, giving it a ranged option. Slashing with these weapons, wide arcs of plasma broke off from the end of the mount, burning through the sky towards their target.

/COM/J24: "Die mercenary!"

/COM/JK-189: "Come on!"

They were so close now, a few more bouts of plasma on target would melt away J24's armor, and finally kill the bastard. The clone had also ran out of ammo, forcing it to change to it's twin laser blades as well, only to reveal that it also had Pulse-Wave upgrades, catching Strayed off guard as it approached, tanking a wave of plasma to the face.

/COM/JK-189: "Try again from head-on!"

Alternating between crossing blades and trading them at distance, they entered a new back and forth, flashing blades tearing through the air and barely grazing their flanks. Always moving, always pushing G's that even left Lynx aghast.

Pain started to well up in Strayed's chest, being pushed not just by the limit of their condition, but the physical strain at the extreme end of what it could endure.

Capitalizing on this tiny opening, the barest hesitation as Strayed burned from the inside, J24 had gone for a killing blow, driving it's blade down toward their cockpit. The blade connected, but missed, as Strayed spun out of the hit, burnt armor on it's flank earned from that mistake.

/COM/JK-189: "Damn it! Looks like we both still got what it takes."

They were each very close now, on the barest cusp of life and death. Blades still burning long lines in the sky. Armor ruined and melted from the long battle at all ranges with all manner of ordnance. The next hit certain to end their lives.

Strayed just had to be sure that it got the killing hit first.

Overall however, Sayori's tactic had worked with unexpected brilliance, forcing J24 to slow down just long enough to get to this point. From here on, Strayed could do the rest, working on securing the kill.

Back and forth the blade dual raged; men made machines, in contraptions perfected for death. No words needed at this rate, just the familiar movement of Armored Core blade work; attack without hesitation, evade only on cooldown, working heatsinks till they glowed and capacitors into constant states of charge and release.

Until one of them would finally fuck up and die already.

Fanchon had been better. J24 was still better. But Strayed did not win by overcoming Fanchon. It beat her by using her superiority against her.

In this case, it was a delay and an angle. One of the oddities of laser blade combat was that the blades were not always active, needing cooldown and recharge after every use. Boosting forward to cross blades with J24 again, Strayed delayed the activation, closing past the engagement range, coasting to the left slightly. J24 slashed out, managing to catch part of Strayed's right shoulder, and destroying one of the Ramjet engines hanging off their back.

Strayed, on the other hand, deployed their blade towards J24's core, missing the cockpit, but still scaring deep inside, blade penetrating through vital systems, crippling the core.

With a satisfied hiss, Strayed disengaged…but continued to be pursued.

/COM/JK-189: "What!? What the-?"

Despite the crippling damage done to it's Core, J24 kept fighting, even with half it's insides hanging out, bleeding slagged metal out of the hole in it's armor.

/COM/JK-189: "Come on!"

/COM/J24: "No, no not yet."

More desperately, J24 kept coming, with sluggish and rageful movements, amateur moves Strayed evaded with impatient practice.

/COM/J24: "Goddammit!"

Overriding a safety feature, J24 kept their blades on, while they scarified shielding and cooling to keep pursuing, reactor overclocked.

Strayed just kept evading, knowing that J24 was working on borrowed time, working only on pure rage and determination to keep it in the fight.

/COM/J24: "Come on, I almost got him!"

/COM/JK-189: "I can't lose."

Staying evasive, Strayed watched soberly as J24, the former pinnacle of human evolution, and it's supposed successor, was reduced to such a sorry state. A savage animal, without reason or intelligence, lashing out in every direction while it burned out it's own Core, thrusters on fire, blades over-heated, and slag pouring from it's wounds.

J24 screamed.

/COM/J24: "[UNINTELLIGIBLE]! Come on, come in for that kill you dog!"

/COM/JK-189: "You're still yapping aren't you? That tells me you're fine! Flying flat is going to get you shot down."

No longer battle, just a sorry execution, dragged out as the cost of the battle began to weigh on Strayed. Bowing it's head tiredly as the pain crawled up it's back and festered in it's chest.

J24 had lost, now just needed to be put down.

/COM/J24: "Goddammit…!"

As weary and exhausted as J24 was wrathful, Strayed patiently lined up another thrust of it's blades, as J24 desperately attacked and left itself open.

Plunging both blades to the hilt through the N-WGIX/v Core's flanks, Strayed killed the machine, it's arms dropping as it's thrusters lost power.

J24 fell from the sky.

/COM/J24: "…Strayed…when you hear the thunder…when the storm comes for you..."

/COM/JK-189: "…"

/COM/J24: "…Remember me."

Reactor going critical, J24 was reduced to ash in a second of nuclear flash.

LOG/TARGET\J24: - TARGET DESTROYED –

There was no sense of accomplishment, no great thrill to have bested such a dangerous and worthy foe. No relief as Strayed was left alone in ash and dust.

Just the bitter taste of blood and dirty work.


Author's Notes: I am so sorry for all the crap I copied. I think the more I got towards the end of this story the more lazy I got as well. Although I also kinda wanted to add some of the coolest things I've seen or heard to this story as well, and since this is fanfiction, just citing it is more credit than most authors give to copied or inspired moments.

So, in somewhat order of citations:

Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds Musical songs "Forever Autumn" and "Thunderchild" for the scene with the Thunderchild and the few paragraphs right before the scene between James and J24.

Battlestar Galactica (2004) For the paragraphs where Great Divider was damaged by ramming a door.

The Expanse for "Don't go into a room too fast..." and "Doors and corners."

Starship Troops for "...You apes want to live forever?"

And lastly and most obviously, Ace Combat Zero and Project Wingman for THE ENTIRE SCENE BETWEEN J24 AND JAMES. More specifically a Youtube video titled "Solo Wing Pixy Vs Crimson - Ace Combat Zero Vs Project Wingman Boss Battle" by youtuber Raptor Elite - A.C.E.S.

I feel kind of guilty for that last citation, especially since 99.99% of the dialog is original, and only changed for relevance. At the same time this is a fanfic and imitation is the greatest form of flattery, or so they say.

Also, I am actually done writing this fanfic, just have to now edit the last two chapters and post them. I'm feeling kinda lazy, so at worst they will be released this year. Also, I did another commission from the talented artist Waker608, so James now has art of him! Good luck finding it though. Otherwise go check her out!

As always, thank you for reading, and I'll be back soon with more!

To Guest: Yeah, I heard about AC6. Long time coming. I'm probably going to have to play it and figure a new story out of it. Stay tuned!