Chapter 10 Unforgiven

"Okay, about what I expected." Tabane admitted. "Still, I should probably make sure to only gift out IS units to girls who can actually use them."

It irked her that one of her IS Suits had been taken by ORCA. She had built a self-destruct into the suit based on damage sustained, but hadn't expected ORCA to straight up execute an enemy and void a cool fight.

Still, sacrificing North Korea to their guns had given her even more data about the capabilities of ORCA, and their series of megabunkers. And, she had to begrudgingly admit that shooting themselves out of a cannon and directly into the center of an enemy capital was kinda awesome.

Not nearly as awesome as the things an IS could achieve, no, of course not.

"Oh, I suppose I'll have to make use of that little group once again." Tabane mused. "They are at least competent with an IS. Maybe they'll get the kids to actually do something for once."


Saturday, August 3rd / IS Academy

"So…the exosuits can only be worn by women?" Not Judith asked.

"Yep." James confirmed, answering actual questions that the program had about the world beyond it's enigmatic objective.

"And they can be stored in pocket dimensions when not in use?"

"Yep."

"But they're only used in competitive matches?"

"Yep."

"…Well that's stupid."

"Which part?"

"Yes." Not Judith nodded.

"…Do you have anything useful to say today?"

"Nope-oh, hang on." Not Judith pointed behind him. "Who's this kid?"

"…" James turned around, finding a smaller, younger version of Chifuyu, wearing a dark coat.

"Who were you talking to?" The double asked suspiciously.

"Uh…ghost of a dead chick?" James answered somewhat honestly. When the truth was stranger than fiction, there was no reason to lie. "You, uh…don't happen to be one of Chifuyu's clones, are you?"

"Chh!" The Chifuyu clone sneered, pulling a handgun out from her coat. "How did you know that?!"

"Just a guess. What's your name?" James asked casually, unfazed by the weapon.

"…Makoda Orimura." The clone answered. "Sorry to say, but I'll be killing you…and then Ichika."

"Oh, I actually just saw him on the other side of the outdoor area." James pointed in Ichika's general direction.

"Uh…what?" Makoda was taken aback for a moment. "Y-…who are you?"

"Just a Lynx of ORCA." James smiled. "Now are you going to shoot me with that thing or are you going to go do your mission?"

"I…uh…right." Makoda was torn between her objective and the strange off-worlder. "I have a mission to complete."

"Might I ask for whom do you owe your allegiance?" James questioned.

"…I am an operator of Phantom Task." Makoda declared. "And I will kill Ichika Orimura…and then Chifuyu Orimura."

"Cool, good luck with that." James turned and walked away. Makoda was so shocked by his dismissiveness that she decided to go and complete her mission.

"Wow." Not Judith commented, able to since Makoda had left. "What an idiot."

"Yeah. I can't believe she actually admitted that either." James frowned.

"Hey uh…you're not worried about that kid she said she'd kill?" Not Judith wondered.

"Nah, he's got Laura stalking him today. She's at least minimally competent."

"Ah…" Not Judith nodded. "That group she said. Phantom Task…?"

"Yeah, they're going to be a problem." James admitted. "IS units aren't great, but good pilots can pose a decent threat to an AC."

"Still, why didn't you kill her?" Not Judith pointed. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you seem like a trigger-happy-wack-job to me."

"There's a time and place for everything, strange program." James advised. "Besides, I have a feeling her life is not going to be mine to take."


Monday, August 5th

The lines of soldiers holding their banners high, wearing pristine black uniforms was not in fact an invasion force. It was the color guard, of ORCA Marines, standing at parade.

It cost a lot of money to operate the IS Academy, and Japan had been footing most of the bill for the better half of a decade. Offloading the cost of security to the local mercenary nation with practical combat experience had made sense financially. Of course, that wasn't what they were going to say.

As part of the ceremony, ORCA's Grand Strategist, Malzel, with a personal guard consisting of Fanchon, was giving a speech to commemorate the occasion.

"It is with great honor that we send our Marines with the critical task of safeguarding the students of the IS Academy." Malzel began, gesturing towards the formation. "Though we have limited interest in the Infinite Stratos itself, we are more than happy to contribute to the protection of the students of an international community."

The students themselves were in attendance as well, and they were anxious. Their previous guards had been the lowest bidder and particularly discrete. Now, their campus was being occupied by a heavily armed infantry assault battalion, pro bono. For the moment the battalion of ORCA Marines would be living on a troopship temporarily docked in the nearby port, but plans were being drawn up for their own discrete FOB within the grounds of the Academy.

That wasn't what James was thinking about though. He wasn't thinking about Chifuyu and her weird fucked up family of clones. Hell he wasn't even thinking about the ghost. He was thinking about the fact that Fanchon had that look on her face like she wanted a pound of his flesh. Literally.

Eh. It was just one of those days.


That little ceremony taken care of, Malzel strode from administrator to administrator, promising that the ORCA military would always be on their best behavior, and always for the defense of the school.

One of the teachers approached him…Ms. Yamada, he recognized. The little Japanese May look alike.

"Uh…Mr. Malzel sir?" Maya spoke shyly.

"Please, just Malzel. How can I help you?" Malzel requested politely.

"Ah…well…do you have a moment to speak privately?"

"By all means." Malzel gestured for her to lead the way, to which the small teacher skipped eagerly ahead, just a few paces from the rest of the crowd. "So, what can I do for you, ma'am?"

"Oh…um…" Maya blushed wildly in the presence of the patient and handsome man. "Well, you see, um, I was wondering if you maybe would want to go on a date sometime?" She squeaked, hopeful and hiding her face.

"…" Malzel smiled sadly. Ah, poor woman. "I'm sorry ma'am, but I don't feel that way towards you."

"Oh…oh I'm sorry!" Maya apologized profusely, blushing from embarrassment. "I uh shouldn't be bothering you with this anyway! Please forgive me and forget this!"

"…" Malzel sighed. He'd not wanted to hurt her feelings, so he felt he should be just a bit more honest. "Ma'am. You have no reason to apologize or be ashamed. The truth is I don't feel that way towards any woman."

"Oh…Oh." Maya realized what he meant. "So…you're…gay?"

"Yes." Malzel nodded. "Just is what it is, I suppose."

"Okay." Maya nodded back. "I didn't expect that. You don't look gay at all."

Then Malzel raised an eyebrow, head turned in confusion. "Look gay?"

"Yeah…you know?"

"No. Gay men don't look like anything other than men." Malzel corrected. "Unless there's some cultural thing on your world I don't know about."

"Uh, kinda?" Maya shrugged. "I guess I would have just expected you to be more open about it is all?"

"But I am open about it." Malzel added. "Everyone in ORCA knows. It's no secret."

"Really…?" Maya seemed surprised. "How do they treat you then?"

"…Are gay men treated differently on your world?" Malzel mused.

"Uh, yeah…" Maya admitted shamefully. "It used to be really bad. It's gotten better, but there's still a lot of hate towards them, mostly in the minority."

"Huh." Malzel considered that answerer. "On our world, survival trumped all thoughts or opinions. The only opinion on homosexuals that was widely held was that they were not as efficient at child baring, and even then only by a few steps. The technology to make a child out of same sex partners is relatively inexpensive. If anything, I am treated differently only because of my role as Lynx."

"I see. That's good." Maya smiled. "Do you have a partner?"

"…I did." Malzel sighed.

"Ah…I'm sorry." Maya realized her mistake. "What happened…if I might ask?"

"…His name was Hari. Fanchon killed him in battle." Malzel revealed calmly.


This had been their relationship for the past few months they'd been forced to work together. Every few weeks they'd find a nice quiet corner and beat each other within an inch of their lives.

Though Fanchon was only officially the third ranked of Collared, everyone knew that if she cared to, she could have been the first ranked. The only person who could keep up, or even surpass her, was James.

Except that he wasn't feeling it today.

Spitting blood that was pooling in his mouth, James sighed, then took another rough hit to the side of the head.

"I don't get you sometimes." Wynne D spat, her hands soaked in his blood. "Sometimes I feel like I'm so close to death with you. Sometimes I'm not sure we'll stop. And here you are, taking it like a bitch."

"…" James smiled, showing his teeth. "You remind me of her."

That earned him a knife in the ribs, twisted and gutting a large hole in his side. In response, he head butted her, breaking her nose, and causing her to step back.

He laughed, pulling the knife out of his chest. It didn't hurt. Much.

"irregular." Wynne D hissed.

"Hey!"

Running in between them, Chifuyu looked shocked and disgusted by the state of the two ORCA Lynx. "What the fuck is this?!"

"Lynx business." Fanchon stated coldly, watching the woman intently, how she defended James.

Interesting.

"Ma'am." James stood tall, in spite of the amount of blood he was losing. "Remember when I kicked your ass…? Fachnon here is just as good as me. Probably better. And neither of us can stand that."

"Even so, don't do that shit on Academy grounds." Chifuyu hissed back. "I don't care what fucked up things you two get up to in Big Box, but leave that shit there!"

"Very well." Fanchon bowed to her, then turned to leave. "Be seeing you, irregular."

James allowed himself to lean against a wall, admittedly a little tired.

"What the fuck James?!" Chifuyu cursed once Fanchon was gone, trying to keep his chest wound closed. "What the fuck was that about?!"

"Just a little agreement between Wynne D and myself." James stated calmly. "Nothing to worry about."

"Ah, fuck." Chifuyu looked down at her hands, covered in his blood. "What…does that word mean to you? irregular?"

"For us, irregular means an unranked or unregistered Lynx. It is, however, an insult of the highest order. And something that should be put down."

"What have you done to deserve such a title?"

"…" He didn't like lying. If he could be honest he would. Maybe she should understand this little bit about him. "Do you think I am a good man?"

"What?-of course I do." Chifuyu assured him. "Sure you're pretty fucked up, but there's more good in you than not."

"You're wrong." James admitted. "You are very, very wrong."

Not Judith was standing behind Chifuyu, watching them. She smiled sadly.

She knew.

"There was a girl named Judith. Judith Fanchon." James told slowly. "A Lynx like us, and her sister."

"…What did you do, James?"Chifuyu wondered.

"Judith and I were pretty close, see. Closer than you or I, even." James smiled. "What do you think happened?"

"…You killed her." Chifuyu realized sickly.

"No." James shook his head. "If it was in battle, Wynne D could stomach it. I stabbed her in the back." He looked her in the eyes. "I murdered her."


"Ahhhh." Tatenashi screamed quietly. "What the hell happened to you, James?"

"Had a run in with Fanchon." He answered simply.

"…" May sighed, and ceased playing with Tatenashi. "Alright come here you fucking idiot."

"…" James sat on his bed and took off his shirt, while May got on her knees and started sewing his knife wound closed.

"Yeah, that's not how I wanted to see you with your shirt off. Christ." Tatenashi grimaced.

"…She got it in and twisted it, didn't she?" May noted. "You're usually better than that. Slacking much?"

"Just an off day is all."

"You've been having a few more 'off days' than usual." May countered.

"…" James didn't want to say why he was so off. The thing that kept haunting him. The face. The name.

"So…while I have you here, I need to ask you a huge favor." Tatenashi was speaking to James again. "I want you to take care of my sister for me."

"…"

"So…anyway, here she is." The blue haired girl took out her phone and brought up a two-dimensional holo-image of a girl that looked just like her, except a year younger and with longer hair and glasses. "Her name is Kanzashi Sarashiki."

"…"

"The thing is…she's kind of…you know, the quiet type. Like you are."

"…"

"However, she's really quite skilled!" Tatenashi insisted worriedly. "A representative-contender of Japan actually! Uh…and…"

"…" It was hard for Tatenashi to keep this conversation going what with James bleeding out and having his wounds sown up by May, while he just stared at her with dead uninterested eyes.

"She…doesn't have a personal IS…yet." She frowned. "It's Ichika's fault…kind of. The development team in charge of her IS put their work on indefinite hold while they worked on his."

"…"

"And, well, you're terrifyingly strong, so I was hoping you could pair up with her in the upcoming tag-team tournament. Pretty Please!?" She begged.

"…Would you please put something on?" James scowled.

"Oh…oh! Ehehe!" Tatenashi giggled. "Do y-"

"Shut up." James cut her off. "If it is Ichika's fault, why don't you ask him to take responsibility for that inconvenience?"

"I suppose I could." Tatenashi admitted. "But he's already got too much going on, what with splitting his time between five overly hormonal teenage girls always chasing his affection. Plus I don't think Kanzashi would appreciate getting along with the guy who accidently delayed the development of her IS."

"And you thought the trigger-happy-wack-job would be a good match for her?"

"Hmm? Who called you that?" Tatenashi seemed surprised.

"…"

"It's my suggestion too, James." May spoke up, having finished tending to his wounds. "You've been acting kind of weird lately. Not sure if you're getting lazy or complacent or you're just losing your damn mind or what. But I think having a ward to watch over would be good for you."

"…" James had to admit that the possibility of keeping someone close, if only to keep the ghost from showing up was an enticing possibility.

"Plus, if you two get along really well…" Tatenashi suggested. "You could, you know…"

"I'm not going to fuck your sister, Tatenashi."

"Not even if you had my permission?" Tatenashi smiled dangerously. She meant it.

"…" James sighed, terribly annoyed.

"So…you're going to take this request." May demanded.

"…Why?"

"Because if you don't, I'm going to report back to command about that weird physical relationship you have with Ms. Orimura." May threatened. "I know you don't particularly care, but I'm betting that's going to be an uncomfortable conversation."

"…" James grumbled imperceivably.


Next Day – Lunch / IS Academy – Class Four

"Hey, it's that Klein guy!"

"Is he coming to see someone in class four?"

"…" His usual isolation meant that these girls who surrounded him now weren't as used to his difficult demeanor as those in class one. Even so, he didn't have to go far to find his target.

Not Judith had used his own sensor suite faster than he had and already located the girl and was standing behind her while she worked on optimizing the sub-routine programs of her IS through lunch. The ghost had enough decency though to walk out of his line of sight and not bother him when she knew he was trying to have a conversation, not that she could interact with him when people where in close proximity.

Kanzashi really looked like her older sister, Tatenashi. Except she held herself with a more bored expression. Though she had a large set of grey hair clips above her head, her IS was actually contained within a ring on her finger.

Lacking any kind of grace or decency, James placed his hands on either side of her desk, and leaned down, past the holographic screen she was working on, and right into her face. Kanzashi had seen him coming, but wasn't prepared to have her personal space invaded so abrasively.

"Eek! W-What do you want?!"

With eyes unblinking, James made his demand. "You and I are going to be paired up for the upcoming tournament. No exceptions. No excuses."

"Ah…! I uh! Err…well…My personal IS isn't ready yet…and you don't even have an IS…" Kanzashi noted meekly.

"My AC can handle an IS well enough. As for your IS…" James stood up straight, and took out his phone. Swiping up, he sent a file to her holographic display. "I believe these adjustments should do as a baseline for you to work from."

"Huh...?" Kanzashi looked over the file sent to her, seeing the modifications he was suggesting. "Eh…?! How did you come by that modification?!"

"I read." James dismissed. "Just test this first then see where it can be optimized for higher performance. I'm not an expert but this will get it working."

"Oh…t-thanks…alright."

"Good. I'll be watching your progress closely."


Feeling particularly good about herself, Houki skipped back to the Academy after a short time outside.

She was ecstatic because Ichika had asked her to be his partner for the upcoming tournament. Sometimes it really did pay to be the first best friend.

Guarding the entrance to the Academy was a pair of ORCA Marines. Their light exosuit armor and bayonet rifles definitely stood out much more than the previous security contract, and even though it was known and acknowledged to be ineffective against an IS, ORCA tenacity was already renowned and respected.

For herself, Houki just wanted to forget about the ORCA fanatics and their strange beliefs. She skipped past the gates and back into the school.

"Remember the Cant."

"…!" Houki flinched hard at that phrase hissed under the breath of the guard. She'd almost managed to forget since James and May never bothered to remind her.

Remind her that she was a murderer.


Next Day - After Class / Training Arena

Considering it would be a project of his for the foreseeable future, James kept a close eye on Kanzashi as she tested her IS unit.

Watching with him as the younger girl performed basic aerial maneuvers, was a dead girl.

"Ah…so that's what they look like." Not Judith watched carefully. It was definitely a strange sight, considering she was only pretending to look from where she was and was actually using his eyes.

"Yep."

"Still, why is everything all…hanging out there for all to see?" Not Judith frowned. "It's not a really good weapon like that."

"As far as we know, that is still under investigation." James then had an interesting thought. "Do you think you could come up with something?"

"Yeah...I can look into it." Not Judith said. "I'm just waiting for you to stumble into my objective at this point so I can do my job too."

"Your unlicensed brothel, right?" James quoted back at it. "Down in sector eighteen?"

"That's the one." Not Judith agreed.

"…The one on Ceres?"

Not Judith smiled at him. "Never said Ceres, did I?"

"…"

"Oh, hey, looks like your girl is in trouble." Not Judith looked back up.

"…Yeah." James noted tiredly. It looked like some flight component of her's sputtered and died and she was currently in free fall, head-first into the arena. Timing it just so, he ran out into the middle of the arena, caught her, IS and all, and used his own body to cushion the fall while he redirected her energy laterally, sliding to a stop with his back slamming against the wall.

It was mildly unpleasant.

"Huh! Klein are you okay!?"

"…" The knife wound from Fanchon had opened slightly. Not enough to be an immediate concern but enough to leave a nice long trail of blood in his wake. "Yeah, mostly."

"I-I'm so, so sorry!" Kanzashi cried.

"…Did you change the settings to the baseline I gave you?" James growled.

"Uh…oh…A little." Kanzashi blushed. "I wanted to get better performance and response from the sub-units-"

"Load the test parameters as I gave you without modification in order to establish baseline performance. Optimization comes after you are certain that all systems work as intended."

"Ah…" Kanzashi blushed. "Hey…thanks for…saving me."

"…" Oh no. He would not play this game. Setting her down gently, he scowled. "Continue as you were."


Friday August 9th/ IS Academy

Having the security contract to protect the school meant that they could install whatever security equipment they wanted, including powerful but discreet League built radar antennas. Designed as support units for Armored Core NEXT, the four-meter-long angular antennas had the capacity to turn any AC into a miniature AWACS command and control aircraft, able to discern enemy vehicles at long range and high speed, as well as through dense storms and powerful jamming.

And, conveniently right before the tournament, there were five high speed inbound contacts. Judging by their heat signatures and radar returns, they were unmanned IS units.

Again.

While ORCA and the Academy staff were quietly alerted, James was annoyed. Not because of the inbound contacts promising a fight. Not because of the ghost stalking him with stories of brothels and rookies. It was his damn ward.

Kanzashi was being difficult because she probably thought her sister was sleeping with him. Admittedly Tatenashi did have a habit of underdressing and flirting with him even when she knew he'd say no. Still, Kanzashi had probably caught her sister on one of her bold attempts to seduce him, or admitting that she had lent the data that James used to help her fix her IS.

It was fairly evident that Kanzashi had an inferiority complex in spite of her sister's concern for her.

Fortunately, James found her, moping in the launch bay to the arena, right next to his temporary AC.

"What are you doing?"

"K-Klein…I…"

"I've seen your sister naked more times than I'm comfortable with, mostly because she's dating my roommate." James announced.

"Your…roommate?" Kanzashi reluctantly perked up.

"Yeah." James nodded. "Sure she'll make a pass at me every now and then, but I'm not really interested in dating right now." It was true. Whatever he had at the moment with Chifuyu could hardly be called a healthy or honest relationship.

"Oh…I see." Kanzashi relaxed, feeling that she was not in competition with her sister at least.

"By the way, I need you for something." James sighed. "Expect heavy combat in ten seconds."

"Wait what?"

One of the unmanned IS units, known as a Golem, dropped down at the foot of the ramp. Colored in brownish red, the ram headed, lopsided machine with a vaguely feminine form stalked forward down the ramp. It's right arm ended in a large claw with a wrist mounted, folding physical blade, while the left had a shoulder mounted laser cannon as well as four laser cannons in the palm. It also had two large laser cannons on it's back, and a wide sloping set of blade like wings.

"Ah…I meant five seconds." James grimaced. He then picked up Kanzahsi and put her on his back, and began to run towards the enemy unit, evading burst of laser fire all the while. For her part, Kanzashi started screaming into his ear at the sudden turn of events and danger they were in.

"Klein!"

"…" James was currently busy getting past the Golem IS, getting it to turn around and follow him. Getting to the edge of the launch platform, he crossed his arms in front of his face, taking several of the laser blast. "…" His thick skin was burned, but not unbearably so.

"What do we do!" Kanzashi kept screaming.

"Wait just a second more…" James grinned.

The Nineball Heavy Custom AC surged to life, lunging at the IS Golem from behind. Grabbing it by each arm, the AC forced it into the nearby wall, leaned down, and deployed one of it's back mounted 30mm gatling cannons. Pressed directly into the Golem's back, the cannon fired at point blank range, tearing through it's thicker than normal armor with the entire drum and cutting it in twine.

The immediate enemy defeated, James dropped Kanzashi off his back, making sure she landed on her feet.

"Klein…what's going on?"

"We're under attack. Again…" James snorted in ironic amusement. "Now ready up, there are four other hostiles active. May should be able to take one or two more and I want another."

"Okay, um." Kenzahsi realized something odd. "How did your unit move to attack with you outside?"

Pointing at his head, James smiled. "Remote uplink. Now come on, there's killing that needs be done."


She'd already been prepared for a fight in her AC, which made it a poor time to attempt to attack.

Keeping her shield up to take the hits from the laser cannons, May surged forward, knocking the left arm of the Golem up, leaving it vulnerable to her shotgun with underslung M61 cannon.

"May!" Tatenashi called out in worry.

"Go on! I got this! Help your other friends!" May ordered eagerly. James had reported one down and she'd take this one soon. Meanwhile there were still three other enemy units that over matched the combined force of Ichika, Houki, Cecilia, Rin, Charlotte, and Laura.

"A-Alright!" Tatenashi reluctantly agreed, leaving May to work on her own Golem alone.

Though she could tell she had hurt it, it was still intact, and being a pain in her ass with it's array of laser weapons. She'd have to be extra brutal if she wanted to keep her kill count above James. Firing from her grenade launcher at it's feet, she'd managed to throw it off balance long enough to quick-boost forward into it, holding her shield horizontal, and pinned it to a wall.

Strayed had seen what she was doing and boosted forward next to her, slamming it's own mass into her shield, cutting the Golom in half at the chest.

"Two down, three to go!" May cheered.

"…" Strayed nodded, quick-boosting towards the rest of the kids, who even with the inclusion of the Sarachiki sisters, were still outmatched against the three IS Golems. Ichika had just been rendered unconscious with a blow to the head, and that Golem still had him by the head with it's large claws. It attempted to throw Ichika at Strayed, but Strayed was faster, grabbing both Ichika and the arm of the Golem, spinning them about so it was the Golem that maintained most of the kinetic energy. May rushed forward and used her shield to break the Golem's arm, causing it to tear off and leave the Golem momentarily stunned as it was flung away.

Hot on it's tail, Strayed pursued, physical blade thrust through the chest of the Golem. It was around that time that the other girls were having a problem with the fourth and fifth Golem. Kanzashi had spent most of her weapon energy just scorching the armor with her hip mounted laser cannons and, after watching Ichika get slightly hurt, was feeling slightly useless. She didn't evade when the fourth Golem tried to strike her down, but she wouldn't need to. Her sister took the hit for her, bleeding profusely from the head.

"…" May going quiet was never a good thing, not as she dropped her weapons and lunged hatefully at the fourth Golem that had hurt Tatenashi, striking the machine so hard her armored shield was embedded in it's chest. Strayed finished tearing the head off the third Golem and used it to stab the fourth Golem in the back. Finally, May grabbed the forth Golem by the head with both hands and tore it asunder.

All the while, Houki, Cecilia, Rin, Charlotte, and Laura had managed to finish off the fifth Golem with great effort.

May had been pretty quick then to rush Tatenashi off to find aid.

James or Strayed, it was hard to tell as a battle wound down, sat still, deep in contemplation.

"You saw it too, didn't you?"

Not Judith was standing on the upper slope of their AC, surveying the battlefield. "Those kids might not be experienced or experts, but this battle was uncharacteristically hard on them."

"…"

"There's a lot of tech just laying around. I'm sure no one will notice if some components go missing, retrieved by some ORCA agent for investigation." Not Judith suggested.

"…" They hissed in agreement, but had to do something else too.


Medical Ward

The sun was just starting to set, with clouds above just starting to turn yellow, when Tatenashi sat up quickly in bed, the last bits of adrenaline firing neurons a few hours too late.

"Big sister!" Kanzashi cried between worry and relief as she kneeled by her side. "You're alright!"

"I…yeah." Tatenashi reached up and felt her head, having sworn she'd nearly cracked it open trying to protect her sister.

"…Hmm." May hummed pleasantly from a seat nearby.

"…" Also in the room was James, unloading a gun shaped syringe filled with a shimmering black fluid.

"I…how?" Tatenashi wondered.

"James gave you some powerful League medicine. Not that you needed it." May explained.

"I just didn't want May getting upset and breaking one or ten or a thousand people." James waved them off. "Your health and well-being is, unfortunately, a matter of ORCA national security. For the moment."

"Hmm." Tatenashi hummed happily. "Thanks guys."

"Hey…sis?" Kanzashi called teary eyed, and that was when James slipped out of the room.

"…" He was surprised when the ghost didn't show up, feeling instead the presence of May close behind. "…?"

"Oh, Tatenashi has wanted to talk to her sister for a while. I'd like to give them a moment." May explained.

"Ah." James accepted. "Well, good. Because we should probably report back to command."


Two Hours Later / Big Box – Meeting Room

"Do you guys get any normal days…?" Wolcott accused.

"That was a normal day." Klein retorted.

"Right." Thermidor mused. "Five high spec unmanned IS units attack on the day of a tournament…Again…and engaged students of the Academy. What is your tactical assessment of those units?"

"Though their fire power was impressive, they seemed specialized in an anti-IS role." May reported. "The managed to inflict minor injury on several of the students."

"Otherwise, they were still underweight and under armored compared to even Third Generation ACs." Klein added. "We cut them down."

"Based on the equipment you brought back, that would seem on track." Fiona noted. "While that IS Core is still an abomination of science and technology we've yet to understand, IS units themselves are fairly simple, sharing many of the same components of an AC, except miniaturized of course. On that note, the five IS units that attacked today were armed with a shield neutralizer, designed to render the defensive systems of an IS unit ineffective."

"Fascinating." Thermidor nodded. "Can this technology be replicated?"

"Easily." Fiona explained. "It's based off quantum tech. While we are still a long way off from understanding the IS Cores, we can still produce quantum technology modules to a limited extent. This module would fall under those limitations."

"Is that wise?" Fanchon suggested. "To develop a technology specifically designed to annihilate the IS units?"

"It's vital." Malzel declared. "Though we will limit it to a modification to be placed only on NEXT melee equipment for the moment. The possibility that we might be forced into a war and have to eliminate the IS in totality is far from remote, despite our best intentions."

"It's unfortunate, but unavoidable." Wolcott agreed. "Make the modifications at once."

"Aye Aye." Haze nodded at the order.

"For the moment, we continue as we are." Thermidor ordered. "Our current estimation is that the organization Phantom Task is behind these attacks…even if we have no idea why. Stay on guard, and be ready for anything."


"Yummy! Mmm! This is delicious!" Tabane ate greedily, occasionally stopping to drink the fine red wine.

Across from her was the leader of the infamous Phantom Task, Squall Meusel. Former American Special Forces, she had long blonde hair and an athletic figure. She was wearing a revealing red dress as she sat patiently.

"So is everything to your liking, Dr. Tabane?"

"Mmm! I guess so! Except for that soup has that sleepy drug in it, ya know, hahahah! Ah!" Tabane squeaked contently.

"Now, as to the matter of providing Phantom Task with IS units? Have you made any decisions yet?"

"Eh hahaha no way! Sounds like a major pain!" Tabane denied. "Hey! Bring me some cake!"

"Hahaha." Squall laughed sinisterly. "I wonder what you'll think about this then." She snapped her fingers.

Autumn, the younger, overly eager, orange haired American of Phantom Task put a handgun to the back of Tabane's head.

"Eh hahah! Ah!" Tabane laughed sweetly, grabbing her fork and knife and throwing them at Squall, who turned out of the way. She then flipped the table at Squall and stood quickly, kicking Autumn in the stomach, then spinning around to rapidly punch and kick Autumn so hard that she was sent flying through a window into a wine rack, causing several bottles to break on her head.

"Uh oh. Ah ha! Oh does my hair look okay?" Tabane rubbed her head while smiling. "You see I'm mentally and physically overengineered down to the cellular level. Nahahaha! Oh!" She partly lied. That was easier to accept than the idea that she was simply perfect. "As it is I'm afraid that Chi-chan is about the only one who's good enough to challenge me physically. Haha sorry E for effort though."

Squall raged quietly, intimidated by Tabane's casual demeanor.

Agent M then broke down the wall with her stolen purple IS, the one she had used to put half of the Academy students on the defensive. "Don't move." She threatened Tabane, pointing a large automatic laser cannon at her face.

"Huh?" Tabane shifted slightly confused. Squall smiled with certainty.

"Oh my! Haha, now this is interesting! Ha!" Tabane squeaked, dodging away from the barrel faster than M could pull the trigger, leaving her struggling to catch up. Then M realized why she missed. Tabane was standing on the barrel of the gun, balancing perfectly.

"Eh hahaha." Tabane laughed mirthfully.

M tried to knock her off the gun, but Tabane jumped with it and landed in the same spot, reached down and touched the barrel, and it ceased to exist. She then tried to deploy her laser drones and have them skewer the mad scientist, but as before, Tabane danced past the drones, reached out gingerly and popped the drones out of existence with the tips of her fingers.

Laughing merrily, Tabane poked M in the stomach, and her IS disappeared, causing the girl to fall to her back stunned.

"Hahaha yaoo!" Tabane struck towards the girl's throat, touching the helmet covering her face, and sent it off out of reality. Only to reveal the face of Madoka, looking up at her shocked and somewhat terrified.

"Ah! Oooo!" Tabane grinned widely, recognizing the facial features of Chifuyu on the younger girl. "Ah hahaha!" Tabane leaned back and laughed while Madoka sneered at her. "Ok! So what's your name!? Or…how about I just guess! Let's see…could it be…Madoka Orimura?"

"…!" Madoka looked shocked at the sound of her name.

"Na haha! I win!" Tabane did a little dance. "Hehe yay for me! Oh! I don't mind making a personal IS for this one!" She leaned over Madoka with a fascinated expression. "And that means! You get to come with me now! Ohhoho! Okay let me keep her! Let me keep her! Please, let me keep her!" Tabane begged eagerly as she pulled Madoka to her feet.

"Sorry, but that could be problematic." Squall denied, smiling that she'd gotten some deal out of the super genius.

"Oh! What a bummer! You're so stingy. Hmm, oh well." Tabane complained. "So, Mado-jiwawa! What kind of personal IS do you want?! A long distance type, or close combat type, or how bout a special armor type? Hahaha! Well I guess we can talk about that later! I can hardly wait to introduce you to Chu-chan! It'll be great! Haha, right! Alright let's get something to eat! Yay!"

"…" Squall, Madoka, and Autumn stared at Tabane confused and concerned.

They didn't even know that they had always been working for her.


Author's Note: Something I want to address quickly is...why is Malzel gay? In the english version of For Answer, there is a line in Hari's ORCA description that reads "seduced and summarily betrayed by Malzel". This is probably a mistranslation of "convinced" or "mislead" or something along those lines, but it got me thinking, why wouldn't Malzel be gay? It doesn't take anything away from his character, as he is still the 7th ranked of ORCA and their Grand Strategist, which are no small feats to accomplish. Also, like he explains in this chapter, him being gay is considered a non-issue that everyone in ORCA knows about. It's how I imagine their world is, utterly detached and completely combat focused.

As for me, I've decided to torture myself by rewriting the 16th chapter of this story, because at 3K words it wasn't very good, so I'm a bit behind of where I should be. This was not helped by the fact that I decided to write a TWENTY THREE THOUSAND WORD CHAPTER FOR THE NEXT STORY, Under Dead Light, so I've been distracted for at least the last month. I am very tired.

This chapter uh...I suppose this will be the last normal chapter. Everything from here on out is escalation, so as SOON as I get chapter 16 done...AGAIN...you'll see what I mean. Let me know what you think, and stay tuned.

To zacker1590: And then some, certainly.

To SignalHunter: PT won't be tossed aside quite so quickly, that's all I can say for now.

To RedRat8: That's fair. As I've said many times, this story is not a reflection of my best work. OTK was better and UDL will be much better as well. The problem with this story was it was an interesting enough concept to try my hand at for what you will see happen in future chapters but, unfortunately, the announcement of AC6 had me refocus half my effort from this story to the next one based on AC6. Your criticism is completely warranted.

Plus uh...I don't much care for most of Infinite Stratos, so they do come off unrealistic and one-dimensional most of the time.

Napster153: Yeah, as I've said last chapter, Not Judith/The Investigator is based of The Investigator from The Expanse/Abaddon's Gate/Cibola Burns. I think Ayre was also based on that character so there are strange parallels that exist between Not Judith and Ayre that are completely coincidental. I had no idea a non-corporal character would be in AC6, so comparisons will be made.

And yeah, from here on out, things only get more crazy.

To Tri-Edge: Funny enough there was no initial reason for Not Judith/The Investigator to be in the story. I just thought it would be funny to torture James. However, I did find a purpose for her to be in this story that is strangely important, so their inclusion will not be wasted. Course I...have to actually write that. Oof.

To MrTin09: Yep, you are completely right. I've explained it a few times by now, so uh...it is what it is.

To KrisB-71854: I suppose I'll tell you in the end what and who Not Judith/The Investigator is, but for now just know that they are not an IS AI, but an AC character that has been twisted through a lense of a character from The Expanse...and also played by the actor Thomas Jane.

While James is hardcore ORCA, he's such an antisocial loner that telling people, even his commanders, his personal problems is not something he willingly does. He hides his weaknesses and actively lies about them if they exist (like in OTK when he continuously lied about how injured he was and also allowed himself to be corrupted to the point of insane rampancy). He has a bad habit of ignoring obvious problems if the solution is to seek help or admit weakness.

Watching IS and reading about Tabane gave me a pretty clear idea of who she is. It will be expanded upon in this story, but in this situation I think this would totally be in her character, that being starting a war with a technologically advanced future nation because their mechs challenge the concept of her personal mechs and, while 3rd Gens aren't stronger than an IS (though Lynx in Custom 3rd Gens obviously match them) they are just much more economically viable and comprehensible compared to an IS, as they function as normal military equipment and not...whatever quantum bullshit rules IS play by. As far as Tabane being a "perfect human", well...genetically, yeah sure, but obviously she's lost her humanity in pursuit of perfection and fun, such that she has less humanity than James, which is a disturbing possibility.

NK was never a challenge for ORCA. Tabane knew that and tricked them into nuking Big Box to see what ORCA would do, and yeah ORCA had fun dismantling the country.

James and Chifuyu felt like a natural hook up for the exact reasons you said. There is an exception to it in OTK...but it took more than half the story to get there. Like 34 chapters of it. As for the other characters, yeah. James lived through a Great Destruction and the Economic War, plus some of the bullshit I put him through in OTK (his backstory is the same in both stories), so most of the IS characters are beneath his notice.

Anyhow, thanks for the long comment. I enjoy reading these.

To Guest DCDGojira: Going up against any Lynx would be a nightmare. Glad you liked it, thank you.

To Hound: That's not far off the mark. Silverhand seemed to have more control over when they could appear in public. Not Judith is working off The Expanse rules, she can't talk to him when he's talking to someone (appear maybe but distantly). There is also a method to her madness, but I won't say what it is yet.

To Cel: League Tech (Kojima technology technically) already offers near unlimited energy. The shit ORCA plans to make will be more...focused.

To Guest (who suggested this story): You bastard, I am going through a lot of stress because of this insane and half-assed story. I just want to get back to writing UDL, but my father won't read that story until I finish this one. I'm going to have to really grind out the last...six chapters as quickly as I can so I can unveil the masterpiece that is UDL.

To ALLMIND: IS technology on Rubicon would be...annoying. I already have enough problems with how I've made the lore of UDL and how it connects to two other IPs, don't scare me like this.

To CasualFictionWriter23: I have a plan for that IS, just wait.

To Gwynx: Yee. She's a problem. Also yeah James and Chifuyu...yeah. You'll notice I don't write certain scenes...my parents read my stories for one thing and I'm more interested in writing blood and gore than sex anyway. So use your own imagination. Thank you for the kind comments.

To FoulerGlint60: Yes, when I finish writing this story, I am going to start posting UDL and hope you stick around for that. It will be great. And yeah, taking a hit from a nuke hid their defensive capabilities while also pointing out the obvious, that Big Box is an apocalypse bunker that can taking anything 21st century humans can throw at it.

One of the things that makes me excited for UDL and Rubicon is the megastructures on that planet are all at least 3 times the size of Big Box, and there are hundreds of these Grids...what I am calling megapillars, across the Belius continent, each seven kilometers tall and covered in vast industry. It's going to be a great time.