Chapter 6- Clearance cleared
Meanwhile…
Whilst the president was entertaining his guest, his secretary and the one running the super-techy part of the corporation, Serina Amasaki, guided Hiroki through the public-facing parts of the company. And then, they arrived at the basement.
The basement of the place was not that different from other corporate buildings, one wing held the storage for used items, the other held the machine servos running a diagnostic on the prototype of the year, and refinements on other IS-related handheld weaponry, be it swords, rifles, cannons, and what not. An enviable view for those very into the very nitty-gritty process of the manufacturing of the machines used in their school, a view most students would gladly kill for.
Too bad Hiroki tuned out most of the noise and backlogged it at the furthest back burner of his mind. His mind was fried enough from the last few months' happenings.
"I know that looking at these things confuses you so, but at least try to act like you're in awe or something…" Serina noted.
"I know, I know. But after seeing the arsenal that the K12 had, seeing its manufacture seems rather underwhelming."
"I suppose that's to be expected…." She drawled on, " But you do realize that their current tech is a bit outdated, right?"
That perked up his interest for a bit.
"Really, a bit outdated?" he asked
The sort of punch those missiles packed when they gave him a rather searing shower begged to differ in their utter starkness.
"Really, really." Serina affirmed, " Those things were meant to total a DEVA unit a few months back, but actually catching up with them, is a bit of a stretch…." She then reached for a USB stick and showed him the data she mentioned earlier, and motioned to a chart depicted in the monitor screen.
" You sure I'm allowed to see this?" Hiroki asked, " This is really top secret stuff."
" Eh, you're clear for this level," she airily shrugged, "and besides, this is very much an open secret in these circles." She motioned further to the graph depicting the results of previous IS tests, some done by the in-house testers, some done by presumably the Academy students for getting the right weapons loadout balance, and presumably to re-streamline the control responses.
She then took a deep breath. " Look," she said, " we did a few testings with data gleaned both from your machines, and the previous DEVAs, but whatever black magic wizardry Tabane invoked, it definitely shows, for example," she explained, " based on the control telemetry simulating how it felt like actually piloting an IS unit with DEVA-level specs, we get things like this."
Right as she said that the screen depicted a pilot twitching oddly, trying to tame what seemed like a rather violent level of acceleration and response time window, which was not a mishap frequently done by your test pilot.
" The acceleration, response time, and the machine feel, those three are the usual guidelines in building these things, what with the regulation standard keeps getting updated with each year," She said with the last set of words being stated somewhat begrudgingly, " and the weaponry derived from them being too twitchy, even with retuning those things until they can operate within the normal core's tolerable threshold, you cannot exactly say that the scores of test-pilots, most were Mondo-Grosso Senior Cup level, were suffering skill issues."
This puzzled Hiroki.
Spectra, as a machine, felt like wearing his Sunday best. It's oddly responsive and the feedback from his weaponry felt like he was using them like the natural extension of his limbs.
" You did say that these things were derived from the DEVA units and both mine and Ichika's suit," Hiroki noted, " what happened to the other DEVA users excepting me, and how come the telemetry from those testings be so… off?"
Serina then procured a cup of coffee, a super-heavy duty one, the one that will make you see things in plaid, and give focus for the rest of the week.
" You're an inquisitive one, are you? Okay then," She sighed before downing the cup in one full gulp, " Firstly, the DEVA procured for this were formerly power-trippers and your run-of-the-mill world-shaker wannabe, which caused damage all over the world, with incidents leaving most of the city where it happened to be rubble even with our best effort in subduing them, and Ichika did help us in killing a few of them."
'That's unsettling' Hiroki thought, " And? How many of them are left?"
"Relax, we're getting there," She tut-tutted, " The specs and settings of the destroyed DEVAs were, too violent to be used in your Repcan's Personal IS, The military-use ones, and whatnot. The testing was, as I said earlier, run with the consent of the ruling body of the Alaskan IS Governance Committee. The second the designated pilots tried to use the decommissioned units for a test run, well…" She paused for a bit, thinking of a good analogy, " we were lucky the ER was very near the testing grounds."
" Were they that violent?"
" Yes, Hiroki. They were that violent. It truly was in the words of some of the pilots, " reintroduced them to the sensation of first piloting the machine in a combat capacity, only it's actively trying to kill you then and there if you're not good enough, like a sensible murderer." The acceleration was far too punchy, and over-sensors installed in them overwhelmed the pilots in mere tens of seconds." she noted each testimony with a greater mix of horror and distaste.
" But it felt too natural for me.." Hiroki uttered under his breath.
" I suppose that's Tabane for you, whoever is chosen gets the jackpot, and the losers get brain damage." She noted in resignation, " And you did ask how many of the DEVAs still running around?"
"Y-yes."
At this point, Hiroki really did not want to know the answer. But there is a curious part of him, that grew more and more curious with each superlative-ridden description.
" Very well then, I give this occasion to Orimura over there, that has currently finished his meeting with our esteemed boss. The podium is now yours, mister."
" Hey, don't toss your question to me," Ichika retorted, all while slouching at the near wall, " you're getting to the good part."
"Any more than this is speculation on our part anyway. Them keeling over that is too good to be true."
Ichika then let out a sigh
" Fine." He motioned Hiroki to follow him out of the room.
Indeed, the moment he followed Ichika out of the room, he was subjected to training.
" Hah..hah…"
Currently, it's day 1 of the practice run.
During that time, he was introduced face-first to the feared Orimura sibling's training regime, lessons in fine-tuning tactics, and whatnot. To say it was a bit on the heavy side was understating things.
As he continued to catch his breath, Ichika came back from the factory's pits with several large bottles of cold water in tow.
" Good job, Hiroki. Take 5 for now. We continue this later this evening."
" You know, , I want to say thanks for training me with piloting this. But still, what's the hurry?"
Ichika drew a deep breath, as he opened a cold water for himself.
' The hurry, huh?' He thought to himself.
" Thing is, Hiroki. We are in kind of a hurry. Strictly speaking."
Hiroki's face contorted into a puzzled expression.
" Don't give me that look," Ichika argued, " We don't exactly get a say when will the missions arrive to greet us."
The cold drink did wonders to Hiroki's ongoing fatigue, as he reached for bottle no.2 right after gulping down the previous one.
" So, what exactly is the mission, then?" Hiroki asked.
Ichika then produced a tablet terminal from his luggage and clicked a few times, before showing him the screen that displayed their current issue.
" You're to ally with Lilium with their next raid as an insurance of sorts."
" Insurance?"
"There are sightings within the ranks of the Hongwanji's remnants that they allied themselves with a DEVA or two."
" You sound worried."
" Hardly. At least we aren't facing Cerbera."
That last slip of words intrigued Hiroki. Far more is the fact that apparently, Ichika faced it before.
" You mean THAT Cerbera? What happened to that guy?"
" So you're familiar with him?"
" I listen to news programs too, you know" Hiroki argued "But they didn't say anything more about it…."
" I too don't know what exactly befell of him," Ichika lied, "But, getting back to the topic at hand. While you're to provide aid in case the DEVA did appear in the operation zone, remember that the main task is to provide cover for the Lilium agents. You can re-review this information with the girls you're about to meet later on."
" How come you're not going, then Mr. Ichika?"
" My Byakushiki got very temperamental recently, you see. It's not like I'm delegating this to you all willy-nilly." he explained, " Besides, they specifically requested for you."
" You think this is a trap?"
" No way, their numbers are way too low to commit to such idiocy."
And with that, Hiroki continued to toil away in training.
However, intrusive thoughts began to form within Ichika's head as he reviewed the results of the day's training. It depicted an even rate in all statuses that a pilot needs. Usually, a pilot will have her specializations, hell a talent in one sector. But this, the combat stats were high enough to actually use that power, whether it was because his machine or his talents, the reason was too blurry for the researchers to make heads and tails about. He then recalled the conversation he had with Mr. Terrazi at their meeting.
" But still, what about the exact numbers of operatives? We know that he will be joining this regardless of input, how many do you think will be going with this, Roiichi?"
"If you're asking about that, they said they'll send a squad of three operatives loaned with the higher end of the Uchigane Fiera-spec units," Roiichi explained " I know that in paper, this is a bit much of an ask. But considering that this is in their words 'an Internal Affair', you can guess what those higher-ups think about this."
" Wow, so discreet" Ichika scoffed, "Surely they won't waste their pilots on this, right?"
" We know exactly how they think, Ichika. They're not exactly hurting for applications right now, or ever."
' They're very deadset on these conditions, huh?'
Such thoughts remain stewing in his head, even as the training facility's buzzer rang, denoting the end of the current training session.
' Maybe it's time to teach him how to deal with advanced-class pilots.'
Day of the operation, evening
The mission briefing mentioned that he will meet the two operatives mentioned by Ichika right at this moment. He then felt anxious. After all, dealing with people that are only after his sister was common enough that a meeting with him as a person happened if it were for formalities' sake.
He then remembered what Ichika taught him about dealing with advanced-class pilots. There were three tenets, after all: Outmaneuver, Swift Action, and Decisiveness.
'Man, What'd I do without Han,' he mused as he gazed into his reflection by the cup of latte, 'Usually if it's Han, he'll probably smooth-talk them over a cuppa, and smoothly exit the conversation if it ended in somewhat poor terms. But he moved away three years ago…'
As he sighed, he is then greeted by a pair of young women, of his age, in their own school uniform. One was shapely and white-haired, and the other was slim and black-haired. Both were opposites as if they were truly an antonym and synonyms themselves.
" I see that you're our reinforcements. I was expecting Ichika Orimura himself." The white-haired stated matter-of-factly.
" I'm sorry. He said that Byakushiki's been a bit temperamental lately. So he can't exactly go."
" Really?"
"Yes, really. That's what he said when we were training together."
" Whoa, you trained with him? How does it feel like?" the black-haired one excitedly queried.
" Back to the topic at hand, Yuuko." She admonished
" You're no fun, Kei" the now-named Yuuko pouted.
" I assume you know enough about this, right?"
" Yes, " Hiroki assured, " They already briefed me enough for this operation. So basically it's a search-and-destroy, right?"
" It's a search-and-apprehend. We want her alive, after all."
"Okay, then."
" You'll deal with the Port's sector A, Yuuko will take sector B, I'll take sector C."
" How about the DEVA?" he asked.
" If the DEVA appeared in your sector, you'll deal with her right there and then. However…." Yuuko noted.
" If DEVA appears at any of your sectors, I'll have to deal with the DEVA, while the one I switched to will take over in the securing of my sector."
" Precisely."
Right as Hiroki did his final tuning and setups for the current mission, both Yuuko and Kei argued amongst themselves while they did theirs.
" You sure he's to be trusted? I mean he's Spectra!" Yuuko asked in a hushed tone.
" Hey, it's the higher-ups' words."
" Don't you 'higher-ups' words' me, you know that Spectra's the one that pasted our entire group, right?"
"And what of it? Do you have any other ideas then? Ichika's status fluctuated between in and out of commission, and the other ones were K12 and the academies. And it's not like they fared better post-Cerbera."
Yuuko then sighed. Any other options were truly dead and buried regarding this.
" What if he went mad like last time?"
" We're authorized to dispose of him when the time comes."
" I really hope that it truly didn't come to that, Kei."
" So do I, Yuuko. So do I."
"Considering the one we're hunting is one of us…. This will hurt us more than it hurt him."
Glossary:
DEVA: Super ISes Tabane made. Numbered 33, all of them are considered deadly.
Cerbera: A DEVA from the United States. Considered by many to be the second coming of G00.
Mondo Grosso: A triannual tournament held for IS Pilots. The pilots themselves are separated by leagues, be it from the Feeder series to the Valkyrie leagues. Winning this tournament, or finishing in a good position, is usually a point of pride for pilots of all ages.
Lilium: An organization popular with prospective talented pilots. Helped the academy during its turbulent times.
A/N: Well, that's that. Sorry for the delay, work, and life took priority. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm currently cooking something nice in this fic. Thank you for reading.