Chapter 6 Voided Beach Episode
"Ah…" Tabane Shinonono hummed to herself. "Interesting."
She'd fully expected those ISIS terrorists she'd helped to fail and die badly. She hadn't expected the swiftness and brutality of the response by ORCA.
Using their "Flight Bunker" as a mobile battle station was a doubtlessly terrifying military response. A structure large enough for hundred's of thousands of troops that could be anywhere in the world in less than an hour…
That said nothing of those Lynx super-soldiers. Definitely not humans. Something more like Terminators or Spartans if she based it off fiction she knew. Fast, brutal, deadly, designed to survive and thrive in a war.
That was not to say her experiment did not yield valuable success. ORCA's ignorance and ruthlessness had led to them committing several war crimes, mainly their execution of ISIS terrorists from or within the many Mosques around the city. So, at the very least, she'd managed to convince most of Islam to turn their ire towards a new enemy.
She hoped ORCA found her little surprise as funny as she did when it pulled into their docks. She'd make them work extra hard to build up their little fortress nation.
Battle by battle, war by war, it did not matter how many she had to sacrifice, so long as all would accept the supremacy of the Infinite Stratos over the Armored Core. Now if she could just get the "heroes" to match ORCA's tenacity.
Speaking of which…
Her robot rabbit ears perked up eagerly at a noise she'd been waiting for.
"I know that ringtone!" She cheered. "Hi hi hidy ho! This is Tabane Shinonono, everyone's favorite superstar!"
"…Err!" Houki hissed in deep annoyance on the other end of the line.
"No no I'll stop please! Don't hang up on me Houki!" Tabane begged.
"…Hey sis." Houki cautiously greeted.
"Hey to you too little sis!" Tabane smugly smiled. "Yeah yeah I already know what you're calling about. You want one, don't you? Your own personal unit!"
"…" Houki hummed in surprise.
"Of course I have one ready." Tabane bragged. "It's over spec with high end capabilities. It'll stand toe to toe with the Byakushiki. Mmhmm This IS unit is known as Akasubaki!"
Now, how best to utilize Houki's new unit, while also dealing a blow to ORCA?
Big Box – Import Docks / July 5th, Friday
"What the fuck is this shit!?" Thermidor cursed at the hundreds of barrels loaded into a cargo container. "I asked for corn and wheat and fruit, what the fuck is this?!"
"Apparently the Americans call this 'corn syrup'." Malzel noted curiously. "It's in almost all of their food."
"It's corn ground down to pure sugar in a semi-fluid state." Fanchon added. "It's neither healthy or…self-sufficient."
"Right, fine. What about the wheat?" Thermidor questioned.
"The manifest is showing no wheat. Instead, the space is taken up by 'tortillas'." Fiona read off.
"What exactly is a tortilla!?" Thermidor questioned.
"It is apparently some kind of flat-bread." Wolcott looked up the answer.
"Right, so that's also something that we can't grow ourselves." Thermidor shook his head. "At least tell me they sent the fruit we requested?"
"Yes…?" Fanchon hesitated.
"Oh what now?!" Thermidor questioned.
"All the fruit that was sent has the prefix of 'seedless'. I think we can take that literally." Fanchon frowned knowingly.
"What the fuck is seedless fruit!?" Thermidor cursed again. "How does anyone on this planet make food!?"
"So…the entire manifest is like this?" Malzel asked more calmly.
"Pretty much." Fanchon nodded. "Out of a hundred thousand tons we ordered, none of it can be regrown."
"I had orders to bring our new hydroponics levels up to staff today, to take all the seeds we could and begin our own farming. How long does this set us back?" Thermidor tiredly complained.
"I would say weeks, but that's assuming the next shipment will contain something we can grow on our own." Malzel advised. "I'm not certain, but this almost seems like a concerted effort to make sure we stay inefficient with our own food production."
"…" Thermidor hissed quietly at that declaration. "Then we'll have to make other attempts to acquire food from this world. Wolcott, how go our efforts to secure fishing rights?"
"Pretty much stalled from all positions." Wolcott reported. "Everyone is saying they already have preexisting fishing claims. Japan even demands we allow them to maintain their fishing claims in our waters, despite the fact we have agreed on a territorial boundary shared evenly between us. Considering they are our closest neighbor and could very well blockade our food shipments if we made an enemy of them, I thought it best to acquiesce at the time if it means maintaining friendly relations."
"No…you are right." Thermidor relented. "We need to be friends with our closest neighbor. Even if we have technological superiority, we can't leverage that outside of a war. They maintain a positional and naval advantage that will take another month for us to contend with. Still…I think Malzel is right. Someone doesn't want us to be self-sufficient when it comes to food. The question is why…?"
Morning / Monorail – Leaving the IS Academy
Having been listening into their conversation a few seats away, May struggled not to burst out laughing at the absurdity of Ichika's morning, which naturally involved a naked Laura, and Houki trying to beat him to death with her bokken. All the while, Charlotte sat by his side in the train, looking confused.
"…" James sighed loudly from his seat across from May.
"Ah come on now that was hilarious!" May whispered to James. "And the bastard still didn't manage to get laid!"
"May…we're on a mission." James reminded her.
"Yeah yeah but this shit is gold!" May cheered. "You could write this into a bad comedy! Just listen!"
Ichika, seated several seats in front, went on how his inviting Charlotte out was circumstantial at best, causing the girl to turn her back on him, feeling offended.
"Fuck man…" James winced. "Even I know you don't tell a girl 'while I was at it.' Makes it seem like she's secondary in his priorities today."
"Oh yeah, maybe I should invite her on a date later." May shook her head. "You got the funds from command?"
"Right here." James held up a black credit card. "Can't believe we're being tasked with resource allocation. Shit must have really hit the fan."
"Seems like it, though I hear they are loading another ship with priority cargo as we speak." May added.
Getting off the train, James and May walked in the opposite direction from Ichika and Charlotte, only to run into Cecilia and Rin, stalking the other two with distain and despair heavy in their eyes.
"Hey you two!" May greeted cheerfully.
"Shh! Quiet you idiot!" Rin hissed back. "Those two are holding hands! I'm gonna kill him!"
"Ah ha." Laura walked up, commenting on the sight further down the train station. After a short heated exchange between the three, Laura convinced the other two girls she had no ill intentions, and Cecilia and Rin convinced Laura to help them spy on Ichika.
"…Da kaka fo da pashang." James cursed, walking away to find his objective.
"Eh, dis ke da kidz bin too wírd." May agreed, shaking her head.
"Umm, May, what language was that?" Cecila wondered. "I do believe it is some kind of creole?"
"Yeah, back home it's known as Belter Creole, mainly spoken by people living in rocks or moons in our time." May explained. "Though it was also popular in the deep underground, mainly because it combines the half dozen most common languages into one common tongue."
"Why was James compelled to speak it just then?" Laura questioned.
"Ah, he's just being polite is all." May assured them, hurrying after James then.
Having searched for the shop in question while enroute, James made his way towards the lower level of the shopping center attached to the train station above. It was a modest looking shop tucked away next to a support column, with an array of plants on display.
Reacting quickly to the barest sound of rustling clothes, James stepped forward quickly, just barely dodging a strike from May, who had jumped off the railing above.
"Ah man!" May frowned, as she stood behind him. "I thought I had you that time."
"Too loud, May." James advised, leading her into the shop.
"Hello, welcome!" Kindly greeted the older woman at the counter. Her eyes widened as James fully entered the store and strode up to her. It was not every day tall, trench coated foreigners came by. "C-Can I help you with anything?"
"Yes. I am here to inquire about seeds." James announced.
"Oh! Well what kind are you looking for?" The older woman questioned.
"The kind for growing food." James explained.
"Well, we have all the big ones; potatoes, tomatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and a few more." The older woman listed. "What are you looking for?"
"All of them." James declared.
"Oh? Planning to set up a whole garden?"
"No…" May stepped forward, looking to clarify. "What we mean is we intend to purchase your entire stock."
James held up the black card that contained the meager but not insignificant funds of the ORCA nation. Though the results of this purchase would be a ton or two at most, they were desperate to begin their own food production, hence the mission here.
"…Seems like I get to close early today." The older woman muttered in shock.
Big Box – Meeting Room / 12 Hours later
"I am happy to report that those two idiots came through on their mission today." Fanchon announced. "It's nowhere near enough for our needs, but we have started farming, and that's something."
"Did you truly doubt their capabilities in a logistical capacity, Wynne D?" Fiona questioned.
"…I suppose if we hadn't worded it so well they might have found some way to screw it up." Fanchon relented.
"Regardless, it is only the first step of what we require. I've already had one of our newest ships, the SS Canterbury, load up a rush order of grain and other growable food. It will arrive on Sunday." Thermidor declared.
"Good to hear, my friend." Malzel smiled.
"Yes, that's great news. I also had a suggestion to maximize the efficiency of our weapons." Haze spoke up.
"Oh? Go ahead, Serena." Thermidor listened.
"As you know, the main guns fire a 17,000 ton solid steel shell, mainly for breaking the hulls of Arms Forts or other fortifications. As it is, there are very few structures on this world that demand such a heavy armor penetrator. My suggestion is to melt down roughly ninety percent of our super heavy shells and replace them with 2,000 ton hollow shells, that we can either fill with high explosives equivalent to ten kilotons, or leave empty as a means of rapidly deploying Lynx to a combat zone."
"You want to shoot us out a cannon?" Thermidor questioned.
"Well, none of the other troops would survive being fired out of a Coilgun, and there may come a time where we must deploy a Lynx rapidly and we don't have access to one of the Flight Bunkers. There's enough room in the shells that we can convert it into a sabot and force a whole VOB equipped Next into one of the shells. Fired on a sub-orbital trajectory, we can have a Lynx anywhere on the planet within an hour." Serena explained.
"…Shit, alright." Thermidor shrugged. "Make it so."
"I'd also like to make an important suggestion." Malzel spoke up. "After analyzing the battle in Iraq, I've come to the conclusion that our troops were not as well equipped as they could have been. As you know, our military is up to League standard, but for infantry, that actually put's their combat kit between twenty and fifty years behind the local standard."
"You mean to say our troops are insufficiently armed?" Thermidor realized.
"Pretty much." Malzel nodded. "If we had bothered to spend a few thousand Coam more per soldier, it's very likely that many would have survived that battle."
"That is unfortunate." Thermidor nodded. "What kind of upgrades for the average soldier are you suggesting to implement?"
"Fairly basic stuff. Exosuits, titanium-nanocarbon weave armor, high-caliber delayed-fuse explosive ammunition, stuff like that. I figure we should make them as physically strong as an IS, even if they don't possess any of the more anomalous properties" Malzel suggested.
"Well, seems reasonable enough, and that should set us ahead of the local standard by a decade or two." Thermidor noted. "That's going to cost a lot, but your plan is also approved."
"Thank you. In other news…" Malzel added, "The boys over in intel managed to intercept an unencrypted call between Ms. Bodewig and an elite German IS unit known as the 'Black Hair Core'."
"Oh? And what was the contents of that message?" Wolcott wondered.
"As far as we can tell, it was a social call, with Ms. Bodewig requesting how best to dress for a day at the beach." Malzel admitted. "I suppose 'swimsuit' could be a codeword, but I highly doubt that."
"Ah, that's right, the Academy was planning a sort of 'beach weekend'." Fiona noted.
"Are our kids planning to attend?" Fanchon questioned.
"Eh?" Fiona shrugged. "They'll be in the area, but as you know, Lynx can't swim, and pretty much all of us are too modest to wear anything that flimsy. 'Swimsuit' wasn't even in our vocabulary for the last ten years, and the word 'beach' was only in a military capacity."
"Still, May might enjoy seeing what all the students are wearing, and that means James will have to keep an eye on her." Fanchon added.
"Ah that poor bastard, screwed if he does, screwed if he doesn't." Thermidor chuckled.
July 6th / Beach Resort near IS Academy
They'd managed to make a compromise. May wanted to ogle at all the underdressed girls and James wanted no part of that, though neither were very excited to be spending any time near sand or water. It was getting close to sunset, with the sky darkened to orange.
They'd managed to find a cliff overlooking the beach below, that May was using to stare down lecherously, while James distracted himself with important work. Wearing a set of VR goggles, his hands moving as though conducting an unseen orchestra. He was designing a set of powered exoskeleton armor that would assist ORCA troops in combat.
"Eh…what are you two losers doing?" Houki had come up behind them to the isolated spot, seeing May leaning over the cliff longingly while James did weird things with his hands as he stared off in the distance.
"…" James refused to answer, busy as he was.
"Oh hey Houki! Oh!" May smiled. Based on the sound of her voice, the Lynx found the sight of the girl pleasant…whatever. "Why don't you come sit over here?"
"I…kinda wanted to be alone…" Houki mumbled.
"Nonsense!" May cheered, pushing the girl forwards till she bumped into James, who continued working in VR.
"Oh, excuse me…uh…James?" Houki questioned.
"…"
"Don't mind him, he gets pretty caught up in his work." May explained. "Now, tell me, what's on your mind?"
"Well…" Houki hesitated. "Do you guys…have any siblings?"
"Mmm nope." May popped for emphasis. "Though Lynx are a fairly tight nit group, enemy or allied, we all know each other extremely well. So…I sorta consider Ms. Wolcott and Ms. Fanchon as big sisters of mine. They're both a lot stronger than me, so I look up to them a lot."
"…Had." James spared Houki a glance, returning to his work a moment later.
"…Oh…" Houki paused at James's admission. "Well…have you ever questioned the actions of your fellow Lynx?"
"…" May paused thoughtfully, swaying reluctantly with an answer. "There were such Lynx under The League who were renowned and feared for their depravity, their relentless and hateful desire on the battlefield. James and I once worked together to put one such Lynx down. Shamir RaviRavi."
"The Spider Bitch of Algebra." James spat hatefully.
"What did this Spider do?" Houki wondered, surprised by the icy delivery of the title.
"Shamir hunted men and women for sport." May recalled. "Hunted them and cut them down in the most brutal ways possible. But that's not a story I think I'm supposed to tell you, eh teach?"
"You got that right." Chifuyu came up behind them. "Don't go scaring my students May."
"Yes ma'am~!" The way May sung it, she must have also been enjoying whatever little the woman was wearing, not that James noticed.
"…Why are you two still fully clothed?" Chifuyu questioned. "Knowing the reputation you've been earning May, I would have thought you'd jump at the chance to show a little skin?"
"'Showing a little skin' was a good way to catch a lethal dose of radiation back home. Plus we just hate sand and water." May explained.
"Oh? Why's that?" Chifuyu wondered.
"Most places back home were a wasteland, The League treated the world very poorly, so the sight of sand is considered unpleasant for us. Also we can't swim."
"Can't swim?" Chifuyu smiled at that.
"Sink like a ton of lead." May advised, tapping her chest, the sound that reverberated sounding much harder than it should.
"Ah…yeah that could be a problem." Chifuyu admitted. "And you, Shinonono, what are you doing up here, away from all the fun?"
"Well…it's…" Houki hesitated again.
"Is it about Tabane?" Chifuyu wondered. "I contacted her the other day, it seems she had nothing to do with what happened with Laura's VT system."
"…" James caught that implication. Meaning that there had been doubt.
"Tomorrow is July 7th." Chifuyu announced. "You're expecting that something might show up, aren't you?"
"…" It was getting kinda crowded there on the ledge. James shut off the VR set, letting the small holographic overlay hang from his neck. Looking out at the sunset, he made a comment.
"It's green back home." He gestured towards the sunset. This world was strange, and nothing like home. He wanted no part of it.
Houki and Chifuyu looked at him oddly as he stood and turned around. He met Chifuyu's eyes then. It seems she half expected some comment, perhaps a greeting, perhaps noticing the state of her undressed form.
"Be expecting heavy combat tomorrow, bosmang." James nodded to the teacher, then walked away.
"…What?!" Chifuyu kept her shock mitigated, but wanted an explanation.
"Ah…he does that sometimes." May spoke up. "Unfortunately, that's probably all that he knows. He just wanted to inform you, to expect anything."
"I…see." Chifuyu questioned what that implied, but decided that James meant well.
"Yep." May nodded, her smile rising. "Looking good there, teach!"
"…" Chifuyu hissed calmly, frustrated that May was physically much stronger than her, and therefore immune to her usual method of discipline.
"Sorry." James returned, striding quickly towards May. "Almost forgot something."
"Aww!" May cried out in frustration, as James carried her over his shoulders. "I was gonna touch them!"
"No May. No." James denied tiredly.
"…Orimura-sensei?" Houki questioned as the two Lynx were out of earshot.
"…Those two are different, but I am assured that they are good…mostly." Chifuyu admitted.
"That story May was telling, about how dangerous some Lynx are…you don't think any of ORCA are that bad, right?" Houki wondered with a small hint of fear.
"…" Chifuyu remembered that warning that had been given to her, about the dangerous ability and drive of that one named Klein. "Hopefully we won't find out."
Next Day – 10:00 AM
As with most bad days, it started with a call.
"Yeah, boss?" James answered.
"There's a report that another rogue IS is inbound towards your location. ETA one hour." Thermidor spoke quickly. "I'm moving the base to high alert. Unfortunately, most of the Lynx are across the planet right now, so myself and Malzel are all that are left to defend Big Box. That means I want you and May to standby to intercept."
"Standby?" James questioned.
"It seems we've been personally requested to stand down while the IS Academy Students perform the interception. Of course, I want you to meet with Ms. Orimura and make our terms clear, as we have a critical asset in the AO." Thermidor explained in a frustrated tone. "I'll forward the details to you."
"…Understood." James hung up. "May."
"Yeah?" May looked over from her bed.
"Suit up, we have a mission."
Ten Minutes Later / Improvised Control Center
James and May stood in the back of one of the hotel rooms while Chifuyu gave a presentation. Sitting around a holographic map on the floor, were the other students; Ichika, Rin, Cecilia, Houki, Charlotte, and Laura. Maya was in the corner, serving as an operator/technician.
"Two hours ago, the Silver Gospel, a third generation IS jointly developed by America and Israel went rogue." Chifuyu reported. "Reports indicate that the unit began running wild during test maneuvers that were being carried out in the seas near Hawaii. Word has now come that it has disappeared from the area where it was originally observed. What's important, is that according to our information it was an unmanned unit. As you can see satellite tracking now indicates that the Silver Gospel will be passing through our airspace just two kilometers from our present coordinates. That will occur fifty minutes from now. The orders that we've just received from the Academy's board of directors made us responsible for handling this situation."
"She gives a good mission presentation." May praised with a whisper to James. "She should have worked for The League."
"Shh." James hissed back, but nodded in agreement.
"The rest of the action will be handled by the students who have personal units." Chifuyu added.
"Say what!?" Ichika shouted out.
"In other words we are the ones who will stop that out of control IS." Laura explained for him.
"Wait us?!" Ichika shouted again.
"Must everything surprise you?" Rin criticized.
"Before we begin the official mission brief, this is the time for any questions you may have."
"Ma'am, I would like to have the full specs and data on the target IS." Cecilia requested.
"Hmm, yes, that's a reasonable request." Chifuyu agreed. "However, if any of this information is leaked, you'll be tried in a court of inquiry and placed under house arrest for a minimum of two years, got it?"
"Understood Instructor."
Even with that warning, Chifuyu did not fail to notice May stride forward to observe the "confidential" data, therefore leaking all of it to ORCA. Well, considering what she knew of the orders from above, it was the least they deserved, especially as she saw James stalk his way over to her side, with another bit of information to tell the students.
"This is a special artillery type designed for widespread target annihilation." Cecilia realized grimly.
While the students assessed the capabilities of the rogue IS and how to possibly counter it, James stared at Chifuyu with a pointed look of disapproving demand. She stared back with her own look that implied wait one.
"Can we do some preliminary recon?" Laura requested.
"No, that won't be possible. The problem is that the target is currently moving across the ocean at supersonic speeds, so we'll only have one chance to intercept it. As well, ORCA has a special request for this mission." Chifuyu added, motioning James forward.
"The ORCA super freighter SS Canterbury is currently trapped in the AO. News reached it too late so all they can do is make best possible speed…but they won't avoid the rogue IS." James announced. "That ship is currently loaded with a hundred thousand tons of food, and crewed by twenty souls. We would go and intercept the enemy ourselves, but it was demanded that we stand down in favor of letting you guys handle it. However, if the freighter is destroyed, then we; May, myself, and ORCA fighter pilots, will do everything in our power to destroy that unit."
"So that's part of your objective as well, save the SS Canterbury." Chifuyu ordered, making sure that her students understood it was part of their objective.
"Wait…" Maya realized. "If they just have one chance at it, then that means that only a unit that has single-shot-kill capabilities will have any chance of hitting it."
"…" James sighed as everyone's attention turned to Ichika. Yeah. Twenty people were about to die.
May pulled James aside, her face showing her disapproval. "We have the capabilities to intercept and down the target, why are we being sidelined when our assets are most at risk?" She hissed hatefully.
"Politics." James explained boredly. "I don't understand it either, but apparently, they want to handle this 'in house' or some bullshit. Frankly I don't see the logic in it either. Plus, even you alone have more combat experience than everyone in this room combined, 'cept for me, so why they'd risk these kids is beyond me."
"Look Orimura." Chifuyu addressed her brother seriously as he lost his nerve. "This isn't a training exercise, this is real combat." That actually seemed to scare him. "If you don't think you're up for it yet, no one here is going to force you to go. James and May are prepared to go on their own."
"…Oh I'll go. And I'll show you that I can do it!" Ichika confidently asserted.
"…" James rolled his head lazily, disappointed. Of all the times for Ichika to stand up and grow a pair, it was when ORCA lives were at risk. Yeah. Twenty people were definitely going to die.
"Alright, that's settled." Chifuyu declared. "So at the present time the personal IS unit that's able to go the fastest is-"
"Hold it!" A woman's voice shouted from the far corner of the room. "Hold it!"
A woman with purple-pink hair and eyes, wearing a set of robotic bunny ears on her head was currently hanging upside down from an air vent in the ceiling. "Just put this operation on hold for a minute okay!"
The woman then somersaulted out of the air vent with a shout and landed in the middle of the room with a crouch, then quickly tip-toed over to Chifuyu, who had turned away in annoyance. She was wearing a frilly blue-white maid outfit.
"Chi-chan-Chi-chan! Guess what! I have an even better plan that's in my head and now it's-huh!-printing! So where's your printer? Hahaha!"
"Will you leave?" Chifuyu ground out while covering her left eye in annoyance.
"Just listen, kay?" The woman jumped excitedly. "First off it's-hmm?"
The strange woman noticed James and May standing at the end of the room, appraising her questionably and intently. With a light giggle, she swayed playfully and slowly towards the two Lynx, hands clasped behind her back, as she looked up at James with sweet, innocent eyes. Then she spoke.
Up until that point, everyone had been speaking Japanese, as it was the nation they were currently in. Several of them knew English as well, which left them confused as to her next statement.
James and May, being the augmented monsters called Lynx, knew who this woman was, having downloaded photos of her before. They stared back with confused surprise, as the woman approached with cheerful innocence.
"Wow." Tabane squeaked sweetly in perfect English. "It must be so hard, being that fucking stupid."
"…" James snorted indignantly, not the least bit concerned or surprised by the insult.
—it reaches out it reaches out it reaches out it reaches out—
One hundred and thirteen times a second, it reaches out, and the things it finds are not the signal that would let it end, but they are tools, and it explores them without knowing it is exploring them. Like water finding its mindless way through a bed of pebbles, it reaches out. What it can move, it moves, what it can open, it opens. What it can close, it closes. A vast network, aboriginal and wrong, begins to appear, and it reaches into it. The parts of it that can think, struggle to make sense of it. Parts of it dream of it's own mummified body, it's cold heart pumping dust through petrified veins.
It finds a thing that will not answer, not entirely. Not the whole, but a part. A bit of itself that has also died but is not aware that it is so. It needs the bit and what it holds but cannot reach it to take it whole.
It does not need to be aware of the problem. It has a tool for this. A thing that finds what is missing. A tool for asking questions that shouldn't be asked. For going too far. The Investigator considers the cyst, the corpse, the dead thing that isn't dead yet.
That right there? The Investigator thinks. Yeah, where I come from, we'd call that a clue.
Author's Note: So Armored Core 6 came out. That's been a hell of a ride. I'm about 5/6 of the way through the story (including NG+ and NG++), so I've been able to plot out maybe half of the next story, "Under Dead Light." I've currently got some problems with the car, so I'm a little to stressed to be playing it for a couple of days. So even at the earliest "UDL" won't be ready for release until 2024, I think.
As for this story, chapter 13 was completed right before the launch of AC6, so I would have gotten you this chapter sooner, but between AC6 and whole loads of other drama, I've been a little distracted and a little stressed. I can't remember that last time I was able to take the time to stop and shave my face...maybe in a few days.
Those weird couple of lines spoken by James and May this chapter in Belter Creole? Yeah, expect to see that here and there randomly thoughout the story. Don't ask me why...I'm just obsessed with The Expanse.
Once again, I must emphasize that "It reaches out" lines were taken from the book Cibola Burns. Cut down a bit and with at least one paragraph of mine, but still something that needed to be cited.
Anyhow, hope you enjoy this chapter and look forward to the next one! See you then!
To CasualFictionWriter23: Yes, Leos Klein is a distant relative of James. He even had a whole scene in my last story. Basically I did something weird where the Klein's have fought and died in nearly every major war in my timeline from the dawn of time to 2450. Don't ask why it's not really relevant here. This is a stand alone story that just happens to share lore with that other story because I am an exceptionally lazy man.
To zacker1590: I don't know what it is that makes everyone thing I have some great amazing plans for Ichika. He's happy enough where he is and all his life he's been told how awesome the IS is. I don't think he would change that just because a nation of technologically advanced but socially backwards mercenaries showed up next door to the Academy. Plus James and May are too awkward to try and convince him to change sides. Just wait and see where it goes. The story had already been plotted out.
To void685: I've not really played the third generation AC games and, as I've said before, all I do is pilfer the Raven Republic website for random custom 3rd Gens to throw into this story at random intervals.
To Guest DCDGojira: Hey hey thanks for the complement!
To Zero: My exceptionaly laziness means I sort of forgot to include that. My kinda of go to answer for my own haphazard headcanon is "didn't see it, don't care."
To Handler Walter and zacker1590: Yes, AC6 did come out. And oh boy do I have a story in the works based on that, just you wait and see!
To Napster153: I'm going to be honest, If AC6 didn't exist, this story would be twice as long and twice as good. The story I want to tell about 621 on Rubicon and the characters she'll meet along the way is hopefully going to surpass the achievement I did with my last story...which is weird, because statistically, this story is proportionately much more popular than my last story.
I think the draw of ORCA in this story is they have a such a straight forward and non-bloated approach to everything, and they have no problems pointing out the BS when it's there. They're trying to do right even when it would be so easy for them to do wrong, and they're doing the obvious things because they are obvious. They don't have preconceptions about our world or the IS world by extension, they just want to do right by their people.
As far as the "terror fraction" last chapter, I only wanted to write them correctly. I've no sympathy for them, of course. But it is very important for me to be able to get inside my character's head's and rationalize their decisions as obviously as possible, and in that instance, that meant looking at the world through their point of view and saying "no, we're right and you're wrong" and all the baggage that comes with a statement like that.
And oh yeah, I am enjoying the hell out of AC6.
To John Rubicon: That's not far off from what I have been doing. If you can, keep any eye on my uploads for next year. I'll be posting a story called "Under Dead Light" based on AC6 and it's going to be great!