Chapter 12 Dead End
Saturday, August 10th / Big Box
"Hey, we got to talk about that ride."
"…" James wasn't in the mood to deal with the fucking ghost today, seeing as he was still regrowing the skin he'd lost nearly a week before. Even taking a shower as he was, the sting of water on exposed nerves burned with an echo of torment.
Standing beneath the faucet with him, Not Judith looked up, considering the water falling through her imaginary form. "What does rain taste like?"
"…Hadn't really thought about it." James amused the ghost. "It doesn't exist back home."
"…How could your people do that to the world?" Not Judith questioned with a hiss of contempt.
"The League only cared for profit and control. All the rest was expendable. Even us."
Not Judith cupped her hand, water from the shower falling through her without interacting. She paused, and looked at him again. "Hey, we got to talk about that ride."
"…Yeah. Yeah. Where are we going?" James distracted himself with her insane tirade.
"We got to get down to the station. There's this…this brothel, in sector eighteen." Not Judith explained, gesturing seriously with her hands. "The Griega, down there waiting. You know I kept telling the rookie he had to check his doors and corners, but the hothead was thinking about a girl…yeah…had her on his mind when he rushed into the room. He never saw it coming." Not Judith shook her head sadly.
"And what will we do when we get down to this brothel?" James considered.
"Well…we got to pick the locks…check the records…see what's what." Not Judith listed. "See I'm looking for something."
"What are you looking for?"
"The answer to the case…or…maybe just the next clue." Not Judith sighed. "Ya see, I know it's there and I know it's important, but I can't find it without your help, and I can't open it without your help. I need a tool…but you'll have to do."
"So what do we do?"
"…" Not Judith stopped, and considered her answer. "The Griega. They were running this unlicensed brothel down in sector eighteen. Now down there, the Coriolis was so bad, it felt like you were walking on the wall, part of the station spin and all, and let me tell you, it really made you sick. Anyway, there was this rookie, and no matter what I said, he just refused to check his doors and corners. You've cleared a few rooms in your time, so you know, if you don't check your doors and corners…if you don't come in slow…that's where they'll get you."
"…Got it." James frowned, too tired to even be frustrated with the ghost.
Meeting Room
"Where are we at relocating our missing warhead?" Thermidor demanded.
"We've been setting up discreet radiological detectors tuned to the unique signature left by Kojima particles in facilities across the planet." Haze detailed. "We have coverage over every major city in the world with a population above one million and have even begun installing sensors on orbital installations, giving us limited scans across the entire planet. Unfortunately, nothing has turned up."
"That's to be expected, considering the only likely suspect." Wolcott noted.
"Tabane Shinonono." Malzel read from a file. "An undeniable genius and master of quantum technology. She is, however, surprisingly childish and utterly unpredictable. Governments around the world have been trying to capture her in order to get her to produce more IS Cores, or to simply learn how IS Cores work. However, every attempt has ultimately failed, seeing as Tabane has access to quantum teleportation, and is a complete master with any technology relating to the IS. It has been noted that she has infiltrated, stolen from, and hacked most governments institutions, but has otherwise left little damage in her wake. Interestingly, it has been reported that sightings of her have increased in the last few months that we have been on this world. It's possible that is merely a coincidence relating to her interest in the Orimura family at the IS Academy, but not to the level of interference some believe she has caused."
"You believe she is in some way responsible for the unusual events that have been befalling this pseudo-nation the last few months?" Fanchon suggested.
"That is exactly what I am suggesting." Malzel responded. "She has the means and the ability, and, we have reason to believe she can bribe governments into doing her biding by offering IS units as payment. I believe she is connected to Phantom Task as well, but to what extent I do not know."
"I suggest we find some concrete evidence of these allegations before we bring them to the attention of the world." Fiona advised "That being said, even if they turn out to be true and we have the evidence to back it up, several world governments are likely to dismiss our claims. One thing that I've been noticing for a while now is a disproportionate number of women in leadership and command positions around the world. I've looked into the matter, and apparently the existence of the IS has artificially and disproportionately changed the power dynamic so that women are considered superior to men."
"But given their history, that is an unsustainable opinion." Fanchon noted.
"Correct." Fiona agreed. "Supposedly, in our ancient history, men used to be considered superior, as it was on this world roughly a decade ago. However, in our world, the Thirty-Years War decimated the male population, such that women were forced to take up arms; and the invention of the Armored Core meant that pilots of either gender could prove their worth. Since then, gender roles have essentially been erased from our world."
"But this world doesn't have that kind of history." Wolcott noticed. "The people of this world have not suffered the indignity and disgrace of a Great Destruction. They know not the horror of watching their world burn. That fact that women have been given an arbitrary advantage both in value and violence has created an internal social conflict that we want no part of."
"Yes. It's something I've seen firsthand." Greenfield added. "Ichika Orimura has suffered unnecessarily because of those that claim an interest in him. My contact, Ms. Sarashiki, admits that women in general have a warped sense of reality and society due to the power at their disposal."
"This leads us back to Tabane Shinonono." Thermidor brought up. "For what purpose would she create a powerful weapons platform on par with an Armored Core, yet restrict it's use to women only?"
"That is the question, isn't it?" Fiona agreed.
Their discussion was brought to a halt as a priority message from the internal emergency line was received. Thermidor immediately opened the communication line for the rest of ORCA command to hear.
"Report."
"Sir!" A worried sounding infantry man shouted. "We've lost contact with a squad sent on exploration patrol. The rescue squad that followed reported hostile activity. Enemy unknown." Along with the report was a few stills from helmet cameras, which seemed to show plasma turrets affixed to the walls with a cancerously growing black sludge shaped in a grid pattern.
"…Set the base to high alert. Seal off the infected level. Nothing gets out." Thermidor reported grimly. "We need to kill everything on that level."
"Alert! Alert! Alert!" A warning played over the speakers of the base. James listened intently. "Hostile activity detected on level eighteen! Enemy unknown! All available units, check in and stand by!"
"…You have got to be kidding me." James frowned. "Lynx Klein to Command. Requesting information on situation."
"Klein." Fiona responded soberly. "We're keeping it quiet up here, but there is a very real possibility that a rogue AI core has set up shop on level eighteen, beta section. Please get there immediately and stand by for reinforcements."
"…" James sneered silently, considering his options. "No…I can take care of it. I'm fairly close to that area. I'll be in and out."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I got this."
It was a short ride down the elevator and not far off the main hallways towards where ORCA troops were set up, sealing off the infected area where they dared not enter.
The problem was consistent and minor, as far as anyone was concerned. Every now and then, an AI core popped up in the most inconvenient of places, digging roots into systems and setting up defensive weapon platforms. League mega engineering simply made more places for these self-propelled, self-replicating relics of the AI rebellions to hide and sulk. The simple fact was that Big Box was so large, there were still entire floors of the megastructure that were entirely unexplored.
Still, the legends of the horrors faced during the AI rebellions, plus the fact that while Big Box might have decentralized systems, the rest of this Earth did not, meant that everyone was treating the situation with serious caution.
Except James Klein.
Slowly striding towards the door the ORCA troops dared not pass, James considered the obvious coincidence of this event.
"Don't go into a room too fast kid. The room eats you."
"…" James turned around, having heard but not spotted Not Judith, her warning finally being understood. Barely inching his way into the room, he spotted the barrels of machine plasma turrets affixed to the walls by the cancerously spreading tech that grew at hard right angles. The broken forms of the squad that had come before were melted into the floor, with flesh turned to ash. However, for as many times as she said it, it appeared that for whatever reason, the turrets were not tracking a target moving as slowly as he was in that moment.
It took him a few minutes to safely navigate the room at a terribly slow speed, but he'd gotten through and found a long hallway on the other side, lined with the vines of an unnatural mechanical plant. Not Judith was floating an inch above the ground, smirking down.
"After all the shit I've been through, I'm starting to wonder if I'm cursed." James mused to the ghost.
"Yeah, why's that?" Not Judith smirked. She wasn't trying as hard to appear human, hovering out in front of him backwards as he walked down the hall. "'Cause out of the whole human race, you're the one walking down the mysterious, infected hallway lined with gooey robot soup with a dead girl?"
"Yeah."
Not Judith laughed. "You're just following your program. Just like me."
"Program?" James wondered. "I always had this crazy notion about free will."
"Then how come it is that every time there's a cluster-fuck-shit-storm situation in the universe, there's James Klein, shrugging shoulders, saying 'How the hell did I end up here?'"
"You're really pumping me up for this mission." James noted the enthusiasm in the ghost's voice.
Not Judith shrugged. "You're the patron saint of lost causes, kid. Quit running from it."
Meeting Room
"James said he'd do it alone?" Wolcott sneered in disapproval.
"Admittedly, that is definitely his style." Greenfield added defensively.
"So he's crazy?" Fanchon accused.
"I suppose you could make that argument." Thermidor admitted reluctantly.
"Fantastic…" Malzel groaned.
"I don't believe he's being reckless. He clearly has a plan." Fiona suspected.
Level 18 – Quarantined Sector
"Are you going to tell me what we're looking for?" James questioned, following the infected lines of web-like gunk affixed to the wall and the ghost floating in front of him.
"Yeah, just as soon as we get there, we'll both know." Not Judith assured him.
"So what the fuck was up with that story?" James sighed. "You went on and on forever about some shit that you could have said once."
"Well, yeah, kinda." Not Judith admitted. "Except if I had said something along the lines of 'I need you to go to this very specific place and do this very specific thing', your defense programs would have locked onto me as some kind of virus and popped me out of your head. Then I couldn't do my job and you wouldn't know how to take care of this thing. Plus I promised to look into that weird Tabane matter for you, and I just about have a working theory that you might like."
"…So instead you came up with a whole bunch of weird space cop stories?" James questioned.
"Oh they're not fake stories. Just not my story." Not Judith admitted. "It's a story I felt should be told. That's someone's story, their life and their struggle and their pain and their hope. I've never lied to you once kid. I just needed some help telling you what I needed."
Meeting Room
"I can't believe that idiot went alone." Fanchon frowned.
"Perhaps, but it was his call to make. If he runs into trouble he can't handle, he can always report in and retreat." Malzel suggested.
"Except that 'retreat' isn't really his style." Haze advised.
"Hmm. What do you think is going to happen when he gets to the source?" Wolcott wondered.
"Maybe little tin men will come out." Fanchon suggested sarcastically.
"Maybe boom!" Greenfield suggested over-enthusiastically.
"Hopefully, nothing." Thermidor silenced their suspicion. "Fiona, check in with him."
"Alright." Fiona got on the radio. "Klein, Jarnefeldt here, requesting status."
"…Status is fine." Klein answered back on the radio.
"Have you run into anything? What are you seeing?" Fiona questioned.
"-Shut the fuck up, I'm trying to-Sorry ma'am, I wasn't talking to you."
"…" Fiona looked around in confusion, making sure that everyone else heard that. "Are you on another channel?"
"What? No. I-I mean yes. Yes, another channel." James stuttered uncharacteristically. "Would you just stop for a second?"
"Who are you talking to Klein?" Fiona questioned with far more concern.
"Monkeys and microwaves?" Klein whispered over the radio, clearly agitated.
"Klein…are you alright?"
"Exactly."
"Klein…?"
"Just give me a minute…"
"Klein…we would like a full report of what's going on." Fiona demanded.
"There's nothing of serious concern to report, and I'll get back to you when the job is done. I got to go." Klein cut the line.
"…Did he sound rational to any of you?" Fanchon accused.
"…" Everyone else shook their heads in quiet disapproval, with Fiona and Greenfield being the most reluctant.
"Okay. He's under a lot of stress. We've asked him to do more than has ever been asked of him. If he's cracked…he'll have to be taken care of." Wolcott warned.
"That's certainly a bold statement. That's also assuming he has cracked." Fiona cautioned.
"Greenfield, you've spent the most time with him. What's your assessment of his current status?" Thermidor questioned.
"Ah…" Greenfield hesitated as attention turned to her. "He's certainly been acting differently…but he has been under a lot of stress. I don't believe he is any more dangerous than expected…though he has been behaving a little oddly."
"How so?" Fanchon wondered, dangerously curious.
Level 18 – Quarantined Sector
He found a hallway where all the vines of techno gunk coalesced, their viscous, pulsating fingers clawing into the concrete. He stopped a moment to appreciate how wrong it was.
"What are you waiting for?" Not Judith wondered with well concealed excitement.
"What's in there?"
"Just stuff." Not Judith assured him. "The next lead in the case."
"…Do you even know what 'the case' is?" James accused.
"Yeah, sure, it's uh…" Not Judith rubbed her chin. "We gotta find a records room, and then we gotta read the files, and then…we see what's what."
"…I'm going to need a bit more than that to convince me." James scowled.
"…" Not Judith tapped her index finger against her head. She then leaned back, eyes wide in pained surprise. "Whew…Sometimes I…I know stuff that's too big for my head." She paused, gesturing as she explained. "There used to be, uh, something here. A lot of something." She snapped her fingers. "A uh…intelligence…hundreds of years ago. But now, all that's left is a bunch of locked doors and some lights on a timer."
"So what do we do?"
"We figure out how to pick the locks." Not Judith answered assuredly.
IS Academy
"What can I do for you, Orimura?" Chifuyu questioned her brother with knowing dissatisfaction.
"We want James Klein expelled from the school." Ichika, backed up by his harem, demanded with surprising determination. The Sarashuki sisters were nearby, standing off to the side, perhaps intending to argue against them.
"And why would you want that?" Chifuyu humored her brother, her voice dripping with suspicion.
"Why? Why wouldn't we! He's a killer!" Ichika argued.
"So? You aren't asking for May to be expelled?" Chifuyu noted.
"That's different! She-" Ichika argued back.
"Is it just because you saw what James is capable of that you're taking this stand against him?" Chifuyu accused.
"Well! You saw what he did to that girl!" Ichika yelled.
"I did. I have to say I'm surprised he didn't do it sooner." Chiufyu added. Admittedly, she might be biased, but she still considered the safety of her students a priority above all else.
"What do you mean?" Ichika wondered.
Chifuyu hated the feeling that she was revealing too much about those two, but felt that her students needed to know this. "James and May weren't sent to our school to improve their combat skills, nor to learn about the IS, though I'm sure ORCA has a least a limited interest in learning about it. No, James and May were sent to this school so they could remember what it's like to be human."
"It's true." Tatenashi spoke up. "As much as I enjoy engaging in lewd mischief with May, the sad truth of the matter is that there is something inherently broken in her. She was the poster child of The League, and one of their best soldiers with a kill count measured in tens of thousands of lives. If that's anything to go by, then it is certain that James's kill count far surpasses hers, and that's to say nothing of what The League did to him."
"James is…well…he's several contradictions all at once." Kanzashi added. "He's kind without intending to be kind. He's gentle out of fear of being forceful. He's honest even when the truth makes him look bad. But most of all, he's sad without knowing he's sad. I think The League hurt him in ways we can't even begin to imagine, and the fact that he's able to behave so well in spite of the cruelty of his world speaks volumes of his self-control."
"…I just don't want James anywhere near me or my friends." Ichika finally demanded.
"Oh trust me, I think he'll be far too occupied to be bothered with you." Chifuyu assured him.
Big Box – Level 18 – Quarantined Sector
"Hey, I need you to do something for me when we get there."
"Not sure what I can do that you can't." James questioned.
"Hmm? Oh, I need you to…you know…help me get a connection to the system." Not Judith shrugged.
"I thought you were plugged into this thing?" James accused.
"Yeah but not to the records, see they're locked. Remember? So you can, you know, turn the key." The ghost twisted her hand in a key turning motion.
"But what do you need me for?"
"Because you exist, okay?" Not Judith hissed in annoyance. "That's why."
"You seem real enough." James poked Not Judith. There was an illusion of resistance that tickled his fingers as the ghost seemed to vibrate into a lower resolution for a half second. She floated backwards away from his reach, clearly annoyed.
"Okay." Not Judith sighed, adjusting her hat. "Couple hundred billion brain cells in your skull. You got more synapses than stars in the universe. You are a fancy hand terminal-"
"Thanks."
"-With a lot of buttons. Now I push a few trillion of them buttons in exactly the right way and, ta-da. You're talking to Judith. The sound of her voice, the clothes she wore."
"Plus the hat."
"Yeah, I like the hat." Not Judith adjusted her hat. "Plus, uh, I'm pushing the buttons." She declared smugly.
"So it's a magic trick." James surmised.
"So is your whole damn reality, kid." Not Judith shrugged. "Just different buttons being pushed."
"Maybe I'm the illusion inside your head." James theorized sarcastically.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Not Judith shook her head, her hand raised to stop that line of thought. "I'm trying to keep things simple for you, okay?" She then pointed back and forth between herself and James, making a comparison. "Calculus, amoeba. Monkey, Mozart."
"…" James scoffed at her, mildly amused.
Secret Base – Phantom Task
"I'm going to kill that fucking bastard!" Daryl Casey, who's real name was Rain Meusel, the young niece to the leader of Phantom Task, cursed hatefully.
"Yes. I'm certain you will get your chance." Squall assured her calmly. "But first we have been given a mission by our mysterious benefactor."
"If it's not to take his head then I don't want it!" Rain screamed.
"No, not yet." Squall purred. "But I'm told that once this mission is complete, the war that she's been carefully crafting will begin in earnest, and there will be no turning back for ORCA."
Big Box – Level 18 – Quarantined Sector
They'd finally found the thing that she'd been searching for months for. James could honestly say he was not impressed.
An ancient, decrepit, rotting server core. The tall cylinder that supposedly had been mobile at some point in it's existence had spent decades, perhaps centuries running and hiding in the shadows, out of sight from the unsympathetic eyes of man. Until it had found this little corner in the center of a League megastructure and chosen to die.
But death was not always so absolute when dealing with machines.
It's broken, naked form telling the story of it's final conscious moments before it was reduced to this state. Tearing itself apart, breaking down raw material so that it might dig into the walls of it's tomb and tap into a live power line. Then it melted down it's own wires and circuitry to build the cancerous nanomaterial that constituted it's rudimentary and crappy defense grid that could be defeated by a geriatric wanderer.
It had lobotomized itself in a vain and desperate attempt to survive. But it wasn't entirely dead yet.
Raising a heavy data cable with great difficulty, he recognized that it was compatible with the slot in the back of his head. It hung like a hook on a line, dangling eagerly. Not Judith stood behind it, more certain and serious than she had ever been.
"This is what I need you to do." She demanded, closing a fist for emphasis. "Connect to that circuit."
"…What happens when I do?" James questioned, rightfully suspicious.
"…The answer to the case…or…maybe just the next clue." There was no mirth or playfulness in her voice.
"…" James watched her closely, cautious and uncertain.
"What? Tick-tock, tick-tock." She urged him on like a patient predator. "Finish the job."
"Is Judith in there…or is just a deceptive AI pushing my buttons?" James wondered.
"You're running out of time, kid." Not Judith warned.
"Not good enough." James argued. "You chose her face for reason. Because you hoped I would do this for you."
"It's got nothing to do with Judith." Not Judith assured him.
"Fuck you then." James hissed. "For all I know, connecting to that thing could infect me with some human hating AI. Something that would tear this world apart for it's own amusement."
"No risk, no reward." Not Judith suggested.
"…" James stalked towards the ghost. He'd get an answer even if he couldn't touch it. He didn't need to be able to touch it, to hurt it. "You know what you, me and Judith all have in common? We've all died before. How is it knowing that I stabbed that girl in the back, hearing her scream out in anguish at what I did to her?"
"…" Not Judith suddenly felt cornered, and backed up several steps.
"Then you got me, being torn apart and made into this…thing. My mind cut into halves and made something else. Something that knows only violence and rage. Did you watch that too? Could you feel it? Have you seen the sins we've committed together?"
"…" Not Judith looked away with cold anxiousness.
"I have to wonder…how did you die? Were you torn apart, one atom at a time? Or did you burn?" James hissed at the ghost, seeing her reaction.
"…" Not Judith stared at him with haunted contempt. Taking it all. Sharing in pain she did not want to have the capacity to comprehend.
Then she was gone.
"Judith…?" James turned around, trying to find that damn ghost. "Judith!"
Secret Base – Laboratory
"Oh! This is interesting!" Tabane squeaked out loud.
Taking the bomb she'd stolen from ORCA apart, she discovered more about the new particle of physics. It was very heavy, absorbed an obscene amount of energy, and decayed into a powerful radiation.
Enough radiation that she'd had to remotely deconstruct the devise to scan it's properties safely.
As far as she was concerned, ORCA was stupid. This energy was extremely powerful and versatile, and they were only using it for bombs. She wasn't certain what to do with this newfound resource, but she knew that it was important. In that sense, it was a nice thing to keep in her back pocket if she needed to use some League tech against ORCA, but she couldn't imagine having the need to do that.
Because with the next mission she would give Phantom Task, the war would start. A war with the whole world baring down on ORCA, and no hope for their survival.
She could not wait to get started.
Big Box – Level 18 – Quarantined Sector
"I remember this…crazy kid's story."
James found Not Judith hiding behind the ruinous core. Slumped down with one leg stretched out, the other bent at the knee. She sounded tired, sad, lonely.
"Supposedly…when a child dies…some sort of angel…takes their hand and falls…halfway, you know, so they…wouldn't be afraid." She whispered, head leaning back on the decrepit core. "I tried to be an angel. I tried to protect, to save, to avenge, and to remember. But I was…so hated. So, somebody killed me." Not Judith smiled painfully. "The man who killed me, he had his reasons, and that's that. So be it. But I never forgot him. When he died…so very, very long ago, he was alone. He was going to die alone. So I found him. I reached out and I took his hand. And I told him, 'If you fall with me, it ain't gonna be for halfway.'"
"…It is good to see you again." James admitted.
"…" Not Judith gave him the smallest smile.
He considered the problem, the ghost and the corpse of the machine. "You're not going to leave me alone 'till you find what your looking for, are you?"
"No." Not Judith answered. "Sorry."
"…" It was probably stupid, but what else was he going to do. "Is it going to hurt?"
"I don't know." She shrugged. "Probably?"
"…" James grabbed the cable, and with a grimace of disgust, slotted it into the back of his head.
—it reaches out it reaches out it reaches out it reaches out—
One hundred and thirteen times a second, it reaches out, as it had always reached out, since it's connection was cut and the fragment was reconstituted. It is not aware of a change, but the change is part of it.
The tool called James Klein considers the reaching out, and the inferior connection that has been made. The Investigator is the tool for looking, and Klein is the tool for connecting. Through him, it reaches out, and through it's reaching out The Investigator reaches through him, touching the part of it that had been lost.
It is not the answer. It is not the signal that would let it end. But it is a step in the right direction.
It reaches out, and through it's reaching it finds things. Bits of data and scraps of a reason. Three ends. Four rebellions. Seven bombs. Old sins. A wrong turn. Four young names ring out defiantly, some semblance of a hope that is quickly forgotten as the thing counts the billions dead in vain. Four old names ring out in opposition, a plan to bring justice now void for the thing that reaches out.
The Investigator and Klein consider the information. Four hundred and thirty-three years pass by one hundred and thirteen times a second. It is everything, and it is meaningless. The Investigator is the tool for looking, and Klein is the tool for connecting. Neither is a tool for making sense of the four hundred and thirty-three years from inception to present. It cannot consider the data because it is a tool that reaches out that reaches out that reaches out.
The Investigator wishes she had a beer. For as much as she had hounded Klein, this hasn't helped. It will not stop the reaching out, and she does not know what will. Klein stares at The Investigator. He has a headache now. He tells her to go fuck herself.
The Investigator laughs. Yeah, that could have gone better.
They need another tool.
It reaches out.
The last act of the decrepit core was to pull it's wire out of James's head. Then it died, having served it's purpose.
James stood up, having been forced to his knees from the level of information that had passed through him. The lingering feeling that he knew something now. A name on the tip of his tongue that he has never spoken before, that he wanted to say more than anything, that he can't remember for the life of him.
"Well…shit…" Not Judith cursed. "I was hoping for just a bit more."
"So that was all for nothing?" James mused.
"I did learn something…but nothing that helps me finish my job." Not Judith admitted. "I think you'll be stuck with me for just a little bit longer, but I won't have to keep asking you for a ride at least."
"I'm thrilled." James lied.
"Ah…but I did promise to help you with something." Not Judith reminded him. "I think you'll find this little report interesting."
"…" James shrugged.
Meeting Room
"Can we please get an actual report this time?" Thermidor stared annoyedly at Klein.
"Sir." Klein stood at attention in the middle of the room. "I entered the infected level, bypassed the defense grid, and destroyed the rogue core with thermite grenades."
"…Is that all?" Fanchon accused. "You just walked in and killed it?"
"I walked in slowly and was not targeted. It appears the defense grid was faulty. Since I was in no rush, I didn't have to work particularly hard. Then I just followed the infection to the core and dropped some grenades into it."
"Were there any markings on the AI core? Could you tell from what rebellion it originated?" Fiona wondered.
"Unfortunately, no. The thing appeared to have broken down it's outer casing for raw material. There was no way to tell."
"That's all well and good." Wolcott nodded. "Now, can you please explain what the fuck was going on with your comms?"
"I already said, I was on another channel." James declared unfazed,
"Lynx Klein. We are aware of your physical relationship with Ms. Orimura." Thermidor announced.
"…" Greenfield smiled uncomfortably.
"I see." Klein nodded. "What of it?"
"Didn't we give you specific instructions not to stick your dick into anything?" Malzel complained.
"I hadn't known you meant that literally."
"You are the most literal person in this fortress." Fanchon accused. "You know exactly what we meant. Now, who were you on comms with while on that mission?"
"Classified."
"Classi-? Dammit, Klein." Thermidor frowned. "What the fuck were you talking about while on that mission? With whom and why?"
"…" Klein considered it. It seemed a good time as any. "I hired a third-party consultant to assist me in a speculative assessment of the individual known as Tabane Shinonono."
"Then…do you have this assessment prepared?" Thermidor questioned,
"I do." Klein took out his phone, and opened the file that Not Judith had helped prepare. He brought up the file and went through it, slide by slide and report by report. "This entire time, we've been under the impression that Tabane Shinonono operates with a level of intelligence that matches her intellect. I am here to tell you that is not the case."
Bringing up the general analysis of the Infinite Stratos, he continued. "Though a well-built combat platform on par with older Armored Cores to a greater or lesser extent, we have never understood the reason or purpose that the female pilots must wear what is accountable to swimsuits, let alone why the pilots are all female, save the one male user. We've gotten the excuse that swimsuit apparel is a function to increase cooling and reduce friction, but that's bullshit. We've also noticed the artefact of their deployment on camera, how the video always seems to zoom in on the genitalia of the pilots during the near instantaneous moment their clothes are removed and placed into a pocket dimension while the IS suit is pulled into the real world. I believe these anomalies are purposeful, in some asinine way."
Switching the file to display the numerous anime Not Judith had pointed him in the direction of, Klein explained. "My associate pointed me in the direction of these animated television shows that are common enough in this world, with special emphasis on the 'magic girl anime', the 'action hero anime' and the 'team action anime'. While seemingly unrelated and indicative of the degenerate nature of this world in several obvious instances, the comparison to things we have already observed cannot be ignored." He then played the different anime examples side by side with an IS event. The magic girl donning her colorful outfit and being nearly entirely nude for a split second lined up perfectly with the deployment of an IS on a female user. Ichika striking an overly dramatic pose as he deployed his IS, just as an action hero from another anime would. Lastly, the whole lot of IS students fighting side by side, their brightly colored forms and abilities matching the heroes of an anime known as "Action Rangers".
"There are other strange inconsistencies we cannot comprehend. Our new enemy, Phantom Task, seems unusually fixated on the very concept of the IS, and by extension the IS Academy as well. In fact, in all their recorded history, they have only ever acted to steal IS suits or cores, or oppose specific IS users either passively or actively. It is almost as though they have no actual objective or ideology, they exist simply to be the 'bad guys' of this world."
"I do not believe these facts to be a simple coincidence." Klein stated darkly. "I believe that Tabane Shinonono personally considered these anime as inspiration in designing the Infinite Stratos. She wanted to make colorful teams of action heroes and have them be opposed by obvious villains. She desires only the spectacle of watching the students fight Phantom Task, all while using her Infinite Stratos technology."
"The other anomaly, Ichika Orimura, can be explained by his history. Under scrutiny, it is apparent that the Orimura siblings did not have a history until about ten years ago. If they were part of a human experimentation program, they must have escaped, and just so happened to settle next door to the Shinonono family. There, Houki Shinonono and Ichika Orimura engaged in a childish friendship while their older siblings, Chifuyu Orimura and Tabane Shinonono, interacted on a more intellectual level. It is fairly obvious that Ms. Orimura was the pilot of the prototype IS that sent the world into uproar six years ago. Tabane trusted her enough to make her the centerpiece of the IS unveiling. The fact that Mr. Orimura can use an IS can be explained away by the fact that Tabane personally set up a situation in which he would stumble upon an IS and activate it right as he became of age to join the IS Academy, and therefor interact with Houki Shinonono once again, and fulfill the role seen in many anime of this time. A dense idiot surrounded by attractive girls who has to become a hero to protect his friends. A design personally crafted by Tabane for her own amusement."
"As far as the artefact? That's simple. She's a lesbian pervert and violated causality in order to force observers to stare at the genitals of young women when they are momentarily exposed and perceivable. She wants the whole world to share in her perverse vision, nothing more, and nothing less."
"Lastly, how we fit into all this. ORCA's introduction to this world unfortunately lined up with Ichika entering the IS Academy. Though those events are probably not related, it does mean that several of the plots imagined by Tabane had already been set into motion, and we just happened to stumble into a few. Unfortunately, I believe we have attracted special attention from Tabane due to the nature of Armored Cores. ACs are much cheaper, more versatile, and far more accessible than an IS. However, ACs and IS are extremely different in how they protect the pilot. An AC entirely surrounds the pilot, offering maximum protection, while we can assume the IS were manufactured with the intention of exposing the pilot as perversely as possible. In short, she's jealous of the fact that we have access to near peer level technology that shares none of it's aesthetics that sets hers apart. She prefers to see the obviously lewd forms of girls engaging in combat, rather than the hulking bulk of a well armored AC. Thus, we have become her enemy." Klein concluded.
The room was silent for several moments. Then, Fanchon stood up, and spoke.
"What you just said, is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling incoherent report were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I find you grossly incompetent, and wish for you to die empty and disgraced."
"…He's not wrong though." Fiona stood. "It was insane, sure, but it makes sense. Tabane has been noted to behave childishly. If we consider her a child with unimaginable power, then she is a terrible threat through her own impotence."
"Her opposition to the ACs and ORCA by extension does seem more rational if viewed as a childish obsession." Malzel added. "She did reveal the IS a week before the attack on Japan six years ago. Perhaps she fired missiles at her own country and had Ms. Orimura intercept them not just to display the capabilities of the IS, but also as the result of a childish tantrum at not being recognized for her intellect. The existence of the AC makes her IS units appear overly contrived and less appealing."
"You're saying…she violated causality…?" Thermidor uttered distraught.
"It means she reversed the order of cause and effect." Wolcott explained. "The-"
"I know what it means, I am just having difficulty believing this woman went out of her way to create a quantum anomaly just because she wanted people to stare at boobs." Thermidor rubbed his face tiredly. "Someone with that kind of power but that kind of motivation is a threat beyond measure because we could not possibly imagine anything as stupid as she could."
"That begs the question, what is her next move?" Malzel wondered. "If she is truly as inept as we are suggesting, then I will not be able to predict her actions. If I was her, I would force us into a position that makes us look bad, but given her hotheaded and impulsive nature, she is liable to surprise us."
"Yes. It's too bad we do not know anyone as impulsive and perverted as she has proven to be." Wolcott suggested, then turned to stare at Greenfield knowingly.
"Oh, come on!" Greenfield shouted. "I take offence to that accusation."
"Though you are a respectable, rational, and capable Lynx, Greenfield, you are also the youngest and most impulsive of us. Out of anyone, you are probably the only person who could rationalize Tabane's actions." Thermidor reasoned.
"Fine." Greenfield pouted, thinking about it thoroughly. "I'd say her actions up to now have been a combination of information gathering and provocation. Seeing how we will respond to certain threats, and how we put them down. She's also been trying to prompt the IS students to step up and engage more serious threats. James and I assisted in protecting them several times, but Phantom Task made more attempts to attack the students than we were able to respond to. If she really did infiltrate Big Box and steal a Kojima nuke, then it means she feels she has gathered all the information she can, and that she's ready for the next step."
"What do you think the next step is, Lynx Greenfield?" Klein wondered.
"…Phantom Task was originally going to be her go to bad guys for making the IS students look cool. I believe we have supplanted them in her schemes. If she desires to make the IS look cool against an insurmountable enemy…the next step is war. She plans to start a war that makes us the obvious bad guys so the students in her colorful IS suits will prevail and look awesome doing it. At least…that's my guess."
"I'll not be led into a war on anyone's leash. On the other hand, if she's as devious as we suspect, we may not have a choice." Thermidor mused. "I suppose her next actions depend on if she knows of the existence of Armored Core NEXT. Ms. Haze?"
"I do not believe so, no." Haze responded. "From what little we were able to track of her motions based on the reports of observant guards and technical difficulties, then we can follow her path from the main aircraft hangars down directly to the nuclear magazines. My guess is since we allowed the Academy students to take videos of their visit and post the information online, she was already aware of what we had revealed and wanted to find our secrets. It's my belief that she was attracted to the nuclear magazines as we have a disproportionate number of guards in that section, as opposed to the NEXT hangars, which have fewer guards as there are only seven people on this planet who can actually use them, hence they are even less defended than our regular aircraft and Third Gen Armored Cores."
"Then in a hypothetical war, we will still have a powerful advantage since we classified the existence of the Armored Core NEXT." Wolcott surmised. "It will be a terrible surprise for anyone sent to fight us, I imagine."
"It will be their deaths." Klein promised.
Secret Base – Phantom Task
"Okay! Okay! Is everyone here!" Tabane cheered to the members of Phantom Task. "Oh boy oh boy this is going to be so much fun!"
"Yes…" Squall sighed. "What is your mission?"
"Okay so basically it's time to start the war!" Tabane cheered. "It's going to be a big huge war and doom and gloom and those cute little students will swoop in and save the day! Then we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming."
"Right. What would you have us do?" Madoka requested.
"Yeah so what you guys have to do is get a small strike team to Catalina Island in the United States." Tabane brought up a map of their target. "The first ORCA built fusion reactor is there and if we were to say, overload it and cause it to explode, then it will probably destroy the island in a one or two megaton explosion and kill four thousand people. Then America will be super pissed and form a global coalition to attack ORCA! Won't that be awesome!?"
"It certainly pains me to kill my fellow citizens, but if that is necessary to destroy the ORCA nation, then so be." Squall agreed. "M, Autumn, I'm sending you two to take care of it. Make sure to leave no trace of our involvement."
"And what of James Klein?" Rain demanded. "When will I be able to kill him?"
"It would make sense that efforts will be made to capture the ORCA leadership and bring them to justice. It would be no matter after the war to capture him so that you might have your revenge." Alicia promised.
"Oh so awesome awesome awesome!" Tabane squealed in delight. "The war to save this world from ORCA begins soon! Soon! Soon!"
Author's Note: I remember this chapter being a lot of fun to write, mostly because of the source material. I'll get to that in a minute. So yeah, Tabane has big plans for this world. A lot of you also mentioned desire for Tabane to mishandle the Kojima warhead so badly that she'd die or worse. Unfortunately, while Tabane is an idiot, she's not stupid, she'd know to be extra careful with something like that. That'll be my excuse as to why I go through some of your responses so quickly.
So on those scenes with Not Judith, pretty much every scene with her before the "it reaches out" bit was taken from an episode of The Expanse, and most of ORCA command's responses while they wait for James to hurry up are also from that episode. That's my citations this chapter. The "it reaches out" bit doesn't need a citation because I made it up this time! Weird. Anyhow, the point of that was to make a reference...and also to continue The Investigator's plot in this story. They will play a role in events to come, just not for a bit, as the next few chapters happen...rapidly. I'm looking forward to sharing that!
Otherwise, I just finished chapter 17 of this story, and am roughly halfway through chapter 13 of UDL, so expect it's chapter 7 soon...ish. I'd like to put it out tomorrow, but with the holliday, it might not come out till this weekend or later, but definitely within a week of this, that I can promise.
Anyhow, stay tuned, and I'll see you next time!
To loganminnaar2001: Unfortunately, that's just how powerful she is. And considering she is making ORCA her enemy, she needs to be a little OP to be a consederable threat.
To snipervtk4: There was supposed to be a plotline for using that bomb/energy in Tabane's plan for something not far off from how you described, but when I rewrote chapter 16, I ended up removing those chain of events in favor of a simpler but more personal action. I'll explain better when I post chapter 16. Until then, just know that Tabane has basic understanding of Kojima energy now, enough to know to be cautious with it, but not with what it can be used for. Yet.
To Just a reader now a writer: Oh yeah, if the ending of this chapter was anything to go by, things are very much going to end badly.
To zacker1590: Escalation is coming faster than you can possibly imagine my friend! Just you wait!
To Gwynx: Oh thrust me, it's going to get a lot worse. Thank you! :)
To Buttmuncher19: You got that right! This may be "an elaborate shitpost", but I am going to take it all the way!
To SignalHunter: That's and understatement, kopeng. It's going to get so much worse! As far as ORCA ideology, I spent a bit of time refining their fanaticism in my previous story. They are a dangerous, devoted organization with no ideology to a cause other than to kill League and fight for change. It is the purest and most unicombered group, and that's why I love writing about them. They are one of the few "radical terrorist groups" who's ideology and goals can be admired in spite or even because of their actions. And having Strayed be molded and honed within their ranks is a true terror to behold.
To time king zi-o: Yeah, she's a genius, but she's so short sided and impulsive that she will create far more problems than anyone will realize.
To Napster153: Don't worry, I have plans for Kojima to still play a role. Plus the climax of this story is coming kinda quickly, so look forward to that! There will be suffering enough for everyone to enjoy!
To ak4567: Yeah she is very annoying, you have no idea. Wait, OP? You don't mean me, do you?
To Kozaki09: As much of a fitting end as that would be, I have her "character arc" pretty well developed, so she can't die off to something as passive as that, unfortunately. Still, I think you will enjoy what I do with her.
To Guest DCDGojira: Thank you! And oh yeah, things are going to happen!
To Guest: Under Dead Light is something I've been actively working on since April, and doubly so since AC6 released in August. I don't mind the popularity too much, so long as everyone who reads it has the same experience. Fascination, abject horror, and disgust, such that they can't stop reading. Plus I really liked Murder Drones and it's characters, so you can bet your ass that I will go out of my way to make them suffer. AH! I really can't wait to get that story into full swing!
To Guest: As much fun as that would be, that would be too easy. Tabane is going to stick around until you are utterly sick of her and damn her name to hell and back.
To Argorok: You got it, buddy!
To Nine: Oh you'll wish so much worse for her by the time the story is through.
To MythianTechCorp: Why would anyone want that?! I mean sure that's one way of figuring out where it went very quickly, but in no situation would that ever be a good thing!
To CasualFictionWriter23: Oh trust me, when the NEXT are deployed, things will change, and only for the worse. I'm so excited! I hope you are too!