Chapter 3 time. And if you already haven't guessed:
Yes this will be longer than the original story, and yes the Trebuchet is from War Robots.
Also, each chapter will start with a short passage about something relevant to the plot or a lore piece of the story.
Data File 0018: IS/Titan Hybrids
The IS/Titan Hybrids were the first IS models to be produced from a new and original core. These cores were taken from an IS model 'supposedly' acquired from the Dunois Corporation, and Raphael Revive model. The core was then taken out of the IS and modified to function with Hammond's secondary project, the 2nd Generation of Titans (See Data File 0017). The cores were replicated to fit for each individual Titan class. Two prototypes, being an Ogre and an Atlas model hybrid, were created and are now used as trainers and PMC security. The project was completed shortly before the end of the Middle Eastern War, and the second stage of the project was started shortly after. The IS/Titan Hybrids are considered the best in the world, having two shields, one being smaller and rechargeable while the other is larger, but with the same properties of a regular IS shield system. IS/Titan Hybrid shields are significantly larger than that of a conventional IS, the lowest shield being only 5,500, and the Hybrids are much taller, being around 18-20 feet tall. Stage two is suspected of combining Hybrid cores together to make new cores, as seen with Firestorm, being a Legion/Scorch Combined Hybrid.
Arena
Maya took a step back, giving her a crucial second to regain her bearings. She was in an outdated model IS, fighting an IS/Titan Hybrid, piloted by the strongest Hammond pilot the country could (supposedly) offer. And he was absolutely crushing her.
Oh, and the Brunhilde had been knocked out in the void wave from earlier.
Gio seemed to stagger a bit, like he was drunk. His face was contorted, and he had only one eye open. The void wave hadn't affected everyone like it did with Chifuyu, but they were lucky to get back up when they did. Gio had started to beat the ever living shit out of Cecilia, draining her shield points. Maya had quickly changed into her IS, as she always kept it on her. While that was common for the instructors to keep their IS with them at all times, she couldn't count on Chifuyu right now, due to the fact Gio's void wave, or whatever it was, knocked her out. She readied a grenade launcher, and prepared to fire at Gio.
Gio, his face covered by a black hockey mask, twirled hs broadsword, and threw it up into the air. The sword flew up, and the second before gravity took hold on it, Gio shot up and grabbed it. Gravity took hold, and Gio fell towards the Earth. He angled his wings to fall-
-right on top of Maya.
She quickly jumped back, an instant later Gio slammed where she would have been. His landing threw up a dust screen. Maya tried to see what was in the dust, but what answered was two Trebuchet shots. The first one ripped hit her dead center, killing her shield. The other one hit her left arm. The shot blew off the IS armor, leaving her arm unshielded. A 40mm shot ripped through her leg armor. Another blew the right arm armor off. She flew off, the next shot aiming for her head.
The dust cleared, and the IS was holding up his left arm, with the 40mm cannon aimed at Maya. The right hand was holding the broadsword, making it a stand to handle the double recoil of the Trebuchets and the lower recoil of the 40mm. Gio pulled out the sword, and pointed at Maya. His IS started powering up his jets. They went to a horizontal angle, pointing their jetwash directly behind Gio. Maya could only hope someone got Chifuyu up, and that she was coming. Maya couldn't hold out against any longer.
Gio's IS fired the afterburners, dashing and jumping at Maya. His sword was aiming at Maya's neck. The instant before Gio swung, Maya closed her eyes. She waited, but was met with a mad CLANG.
Maya opened her eyes, and saw Chifuyu right in front of her. Chifuyu was only holding a katana.
'Amazing, she is everything I thought she was.' Gio unconsciously thought.
Chifuyu swung the sword, pushing Gio back and slicing his mask. The right half broke off, revealing a red eye. No iris, no teal, nothing. Just red. Gio flew back, his left covering his revealed face. His IS flickered, as if it was an illusion. Gio removed his hand, and charged at Chifuyu. Chifuyu quickly grabbed Maya, and jumped at of the way. She looked back, as two more IS instructors landed next to the two. Of course, the random feat of Chifuyu pulling an IS and the pilot out of the way in an instant was overlooked, they were used to it. The two ISs, Revives, loaded assault rifles. One more IS landed, a Uchigane, but the pilot wasn't a instructor.
"Sarashiki, back off. This is way above a first year." Chifuyu said, without looking. The Sarashiki girl only looked at Chifuyu, indignant to the comment. She charged at the Hybrid IS.
Kanzashi Sarashiki, a first year pilot at the ISA. She had been working on her IS when the alarm went off. She quickly donned a spare Uchigane she had nearby, luckily she hadn't stripped it for parts yet for her project. While this was way above a first year, maybe even eclipsing a third year, she had to prove herself. The wound of losing her personal IS to Instructor Orimura's brother was still fresh. If she defeated this IS, it would be big for her. The IS was not only beating Instructors, but it was a Hammond Hybrid. Something to eclipse her older sister for sure!
Of course, she forgot what to do when the Hammond Hybrid actually fought back. She got close enough to swing her katana, but it was caught easily by the IS. Kanzashi stared, blanking on what to do next. The hybrid, however, did not share that problem. The Hammond pilot grabbed Kanzashi, bringing her close to his face. Kanzashi stared at the IS, fear engulfing her.
Gio, however, stared at the blue-haired pilot with curiosity. She seemed familiar. Then he noticed the red eyes. His teal eyes went wide.
Hammond IS Command East (HISCE), Burgas (Bulgarian Sector)
"And she was able to bring down multiple tanks?" A figure asked behind a desk. The room was dark, but behind the figure was a screen. It depicted a map of the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The Bulgarian, Romanian, and the eastern half of the Greek sector were shown, with Turkey and the Middle East shown on another screen. Both screens had troop movements, statistical numbers showing predictions of outcomes of certain actions that could be taken.
"Quite sure of it, I believe our 'witness' can attest to this." the junior officer said. He nodded to another soldier, who was smaller than the average soldier. His body language showcased weariness.
"Lieutenant, I don't think the higher ups or the UN will approve of the statements coming from a soldier we just found as a child. Even as it stands, the UN hates us for lowering our draft age to 16. Add on the fact we have TLC units."
"So we just take the statement, and have another soldier give the same statement. No one will know, the UN isn't even involved with this war, so they can't call BS."
The senior officer gave it some thought, the junior officer gave the file to the young one. "Here kid, tell me what you saw out there."
The soldier stared at the picture in the file. It was an IS pilot with blue hair, and red eyes.
Present Day
"YOU!" Gio shouted. Kanzashi recoiled, definitely scared now. "WHERE IS THE OTHER?!"
"...what?" Kanzashi meekly asked. "I don't understand…"
"THE OTHER ONE! THE OTHER SARASHIKI!"
"My sister?"
"YES!" Gio yelled, his voice slightly distorted.
"Why? Why do you want her?" Kanzashi calmly asked, now she was beyond scared, but relaxed enough knowing that the Hybrid wasn't gunning for her.
Gio shuddered, his voice was more controlled. "Her and I...have crossed paths before…"
'What the hell? Why do I feel...so calm...like she and I have something in common…' Gio thought, he was regaining control of himself. 'She's...she's hurt by something…'
Gio pried the katana out of Kanzashi's hands, dropping it beside him. He put his free hand up, his index finger touching her forehead. His IS gave off a dark hue, but Gio didn't pay attention to it. He was more preoccupied with what he saw in Kanzashi's mind.
'She desire's strength...to move beyond the shadow of something...or someone. That thought process, why does it calm me down? Because...no...that's not possible.' Was all Gio thought before his IS faded, leaving Gio to fall to the ground. Kanzashi barely caught the pilot before he hit the ground. She brought him up, holding the pilot in her arms as one would hold a newborn.
Chifuyu was staring at the whole scene from a ways away. She was ready to jump in if Kanzashi's 'confrontation' went south. However, now she was more worried what Gio did to Kanzashi, and why it dispelled his IS instantly. Kanzashi walked back, the unconscious pilot in her arms. "Ms. Orimura, what should I do with this pilot?"
"Take him to the infirmary, I'll question him when he wakes up." She responded.
Kanzashi nodded, and flew off to the infirmary. Chifuyu stared at the arena.
"Maya, when Gio wakes up, make sure he know he has to clean up the arena."
Infirmary
Kanzashi was still with our protagonists, even though she had brought him to the infirmary almost 15 minutes ago. She was staring down at the Hammond pilot, wondering if there was some reason why she was able to calm him down.
Officially, she was zero for two on the male IS pilots. Fun.
Kanzashi had many questions, but one was why this pilot was so invested in hr sister. What did Tatenashi do that would piss off a Hammond pilot?
"I can explain that."
Kanzashi whipped her head around to see who spoke. She came face to face with Chifuyu, who still had her own katana strapped to her waist. "Relax, the weapon is for in case he wakes up, and still is looking for a fight."
Kanzashi sweatdropped, "Okay, but what about that thing you just-"
Chifuyu sighed, "Gio Inferno, he's isn't just a pilot from Hammond. His past is something you wouldn't expect a child to go through in a country like the Hammond Republic."
"What do you mean?"
"Hammond's government planned that a fight in the Middle East was going to be an extended affair, since the terrorist militaries were now partnering with the Middle Eastern countries, forming the Middle Eastern Coalition, or the MEC. With this, Hammond lowered the drafting age to 16, but the manpower was still too low. So they went to orphanages, forcing those 16 and up into the forces. These soldiers were put into separate divisions, but one of the 'recruitment' officers picked up some underaged recruits."
"...One of them was Gio, right?"
"Correct, Gio was forced into the 614th Division. They were strictly an infantry division, no tanks or light vehicles, always being transported directly to the frontlines via air transport. This division, along with other divisions of the same soldiers, were grouped together under the nickname 'The Lost Children', ironically abbreviated as TLC. They were always sent to the worst of the fighting in the war, and suffered a 78% casualty rate for the entire war."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning 78% of the soldiers in these divisions, from the 603rd to the 620th, were killed or in a hospital. To make this even worse, each division had about 16,500 soldiers each. And that's 18 divisions."
"That's...no..."
"231,000 orphans were part of the casualty number in that war. But here's the sick part, 'The Lost Children' inflicted around six times that number of casualties back at the MEC."
"WHAT!?"
"Reports from both sides point that almost 1.4 million soldiers were shot or injured by the TLC divisions."
"What do you mean 'shot or injured'?"
"Because us 'TLC' divisions were given the bare minimum of equipment."
Kanzashi whipped her head around so fast Chifuyu thought she snapped her neck in the process. Gio was sitting straight up staring at the two, his eyes seemed to have been slightly greyed. "Bet you didn't know that?"
Chifuyu put her hand on the hilt of her weapon. "Explain."
"Hammond TLC divisions were given dated equipment, and sometimes just melee weapons. I don't even know how we caused that many casualties, but when we really started getting into it, the higher ups gave us better equipment. Once the guns and exo suits with miniguns started rolling out, MEC units started respecting us, fearing us."
Kanzashi backed away from the pilot. "Why?"
"They were scared because a bunch of kids with nothing to live for were fighting better than a bunch of well trained soldiers with everything to fight for. Imagine the UN's surprise when the MEC leaders came to the table, pleading for Hammond to stop fighting."
"How was there surprise?"
"Hammond was expected to be pulverized. I mean, Hammond versus Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, and Jordan was one thing. But when Hammond started getting really into the war, Yemen stopped it's civil war, and the little Middle Eastern countries joined as well. Even with support from the 'Big Three', being the US, Russia and China, the Hammond forces still prevailed."
"I still wonder what would've happened if the Big Three fully committed." Chifuyu wondered aloud.
"So yes, I am child soldier. I was in an orphanage after my parents were killed." Gio finished off, ending the discussion of his past.
"But..what the hell was that IS?" Kanzashi questioned.
"Unlike normal IS, Hybrid IS don't have 'shifts', they have forms. These forms are temporary shifts, essentially. The stats fluctuate between forms, but the shield points don't drop below a regular IS's. These forms can be simply a change in defense points, to a completely different IS, and everything in between." Gio explained. "The only thing that keeps an IS better than a Hybrid is the fact an IS can keep its final form."
"Not a great factor to be better than, but the IS has SOMETHING over the Hybrids, at least." Kanzashi sighed.
"So, now you are going to explain your IS, right?" Chifuyu questioned the Hammond pilot.
Gio sighed. "Why not? What do you wanna know?"
"Why Canto 34?"
"The name is signifies that the IS is the 34th core of Hybrids. The usual denotation is H-034."
Chifuyu crossed her arms an arched an eyebrow, not buying his explanation.
"Fine, the IS was given this name for its overuse of flame weapons. That, and the scientist who was naming it had a thing for The Inferno."
"Thought so."
Gio sighed. "This form is the only form I've unlocked so far, the other two don't even appear on data screens. I assume they will when they're unlocked."
"So you can summon the form at will?"
"No, I have to unlock it. I haven't found the ability to do it without forcing it yet, unlike other Hammond pilots."
Chifuyu took her hand off her weapon. "Well, it seems you're not a threat. Thankfully, you only scared Cecilia, but her IS is pretty much garbage until the repair club fixes it. And find all the parts, some of them were thrown across the campus."
"Whoops?"
"Don't apologize, I understand where you were coming from. Cecilia went off on you."
Gio nodded, and got out of the bed. Kanzashi stared, shocked. "Are you sure you should be walking so soon?" She asked, timidly.
"I'll be fine, I've had worse." Gio answered, waving off the question.
Chifuyu pinched the bridge of her nose. "Why do I feel like that's true?"
"So what happened was…" Gio started.
Gio/Ichika's dorm
Gio opened the door to his room, yawning slightly. He really shouldn't have told that story about how he got into a fight with another Hammond pilot, leading to Gio to almost lose his hand...and foot...and any of his limbs, really.
He walked in, and found a blonde girl standing in his room, with Ichika in the background.
"Ichika, is this your way of telling me you're kicking me out of the room?" Gio asked, nonchalantly.
"No, Cecilia has something to say to you." Ichika answered, and nudged Cecilia with his elbow.
"Gio...I want to apologize." Cecilia started.
Gio raised his hand up, interrupting her. "Stop right there, I understand why you are apologizing. However, I don't deserve it."
"But I-"
"I vividly remember tearing your IS up after almost killing you with my second form. I think you got your punishment. No apology is needed." Gio explained.
"Oh good, now that's-"
"Now take off your clothes, you're gonna apologize Hammond style."
"WHAT?!"
"I'm kidding, that was a joke. We don't really do that."
Now Ichika decided to speak up. "Wait, what about that thing that Hammond does with impromptu battle losers-"
"We don't speak of that." Gio shot that question quickly, "Don't bring that up."
"Okay got it."
Gio turned back to Cecilia. "I hope I haven't angered you too much with this fight. It wasn't my intent to completely destroy your IS and render you obsolete."
"Why is your apology still have a sense of animosity in it?"
"How I was raised."
"I read your file, Gio."
"Ah, then you already know how I was raised."
Cecilia sighed, "Well, I best be off. Goodnight you two." And with that, she left.
Gio watched her leave, and as she closed the door, he turned back to Ichika. "She's not so bad when she's not being a totally brat."
So I have finished up this chapter, originally what had happened here was in Chapter 2 of the OG story. With that being said, I'm gonna try and flesh out Gio and Kanzashi's relationship a bit more. So with that, adios.
Also, if there seems to be any plot holes, don't hesitate to PM me and I'll probably address it in the next chapter.
