Chapter 7 Blood in the Water
The new plan, courtesy of Tabane Shinonono, was to deploy only Ichika and Houki against the rogue IS, mainly because she had personally made Houki's unit, a red colored melee type called the Akatsubaki, the cutting edge in Infinite Stratos design. It was so advanced it was considered fourth Gen, while the rest of the world was still experimenting with third Gen IS units. Since it was the fastest known IS in existence, she would carry Ichika into battle.
It was a stupid plan and ORCA was certain that it would result in the deaths of the crew of the Canterbury, but they could do nothing about it.
Watching from the improvised command center, James, May, Chifuyu, and the rest of the students would be watching their data feeds of the battle. Tabane had disappeared, preferring to watch in private.
"Orimura, Shinonono, do you read me?" Chifuyu contacted them over radio.
"Yes ma'am." Ichika answered.
"We read you, loud and clear." Houki added.
"The success of this whole mission is dependent on a one-shot-kill, so get in there and finish it off as quickly as you can." Chifuyu advised. "Your target, the rogue IS unit, will be referred to simply as The Gospel, is that clear?"
"Yes ma'am." They both answered.
"Um, Ms. Orimura?" Houki called back. "Should I continue to provide Ichika with tactical support as the situation calls for it?"
"If it calls for it, yes." Chifuyu confirmed. "But don't push yourself too hard. Remember you have no combat experience in the Akatsubaki. It's a prototype unit, and an unforeseen problem could suddenly arise."
"Understood ma'am, but I'll do what I can to the best of my ability." Houki declared confidently.
"Cockly little bitch." May whispered aside to James.
"Open a private channel to Orimura." Chifuyu ordered Maya.
"Right."
"Ichika." Chifuyu called, oddly using his first name.
"U-Uh, yes?" He answered back.
"The reason I'm using a private channel is so that Shinonono can't overhear our conversation, so play dumb." Chifuyu prefaced her statement.
"…" James chuckled. That shouldn't be too hard for him.
"I think she's getting a little carried away." Chifuyu noted. "She's overly excited, and in that frame of mind she could make a fatal mistake. Should anything happen, lend her your support."
"I'll keep that in mind." Ichika assured her. "You can count on me ma'am."
"Very well." Chifuyu sighed, as Maya switched her back to an open channel, her command voice returning. "Commence the operation!"
Even with that ordered, the operation was delayed a further seven seconds when Houki became momentarily flustered because, as part of Tabane's master plan, Ichika would have to hold on to her back and ride her into the combat zone. With that absurdity out of the way, Houki got her unit up to speed, pushing Mach two, the energy shielding of their units preventing their faces from bearing the drag.
Just over a minute and a half after launch, Houki and Ichika had caught up to the Silver Gospel, an all-white IS with large wings and a robotic facsimile of a woman piloting it.
Ichika, standing on Houki's back, drew his sword and let out a battle cry. Approaching from behind, the rogue IS spotted them, accelerating up to evade. Swinging his blade, the enemy spun out of the way, diving away from the two teens.
"It dodged it!" Ichika shouted in disbelief. Houki continued to pursue, but was forced to evade and separate from Ichika when they were fired upon by a burst of guided energy bolts expelled from the enemies wings. Houki was hit once in the back and staggered momentarily, but recovered quickly as there were still more projectiles inbound.
"Houki listen!" Ichika devised a new plan. "Let's try hitting it from the left and right at once! I'll take right, you take left!"
"Understood." Houki agreed, drawing two large katanas from a pocket dimension, then shouted as she approached the Silver Gospel, Ichika shouting again as well as he came from the other side.
The enemy continued to evade, flying in reverse as it fired on them, forcing them to keep their distance, the constant streams of energy bolts keeping them back.
"Ichika!" Houki called, seeing him struggle to evade the mass of energy bolts. "I'm going to try and cut off it's movement!"
"You got it!"
Houki extended her wings into an x-wing configuration, firing off part of the lower wings as bladed drones that managed to strike the enemy unit, causing it to stagger long enough for Houki to close the distance and cross her blades with. "Ichika engage now!"
"Roger!" Ichika dove from above, when from out of the clouds he saw the secondary objective, the SS Canterbury, nearly directly below. Diving past Houki and the Silver Gospel, he pulled away, hoping to draw the battle away from the freighter.
Surprised by his actions, Houki was distracted, then staggered as the rogue IS fired several bolts at her at point blank range, before it dove past her, apparently in pursuit of Ichika.
"What the hell are you doing!? You just blew our chance!" She accused, as she readied her ranged attacks.
"We strayed too close to the Canterbury, we have to lure the enemy away from here!" Ichika warned.
"Are you nuts?! There's no time for that now!" Houki declared. "They're just a bunch of weirdos! Forget about them!" Using the alternate mode on her blades, she used them to fire her own heavy energy bolts down on the Silver Gospel as it dove through the clouds, directly towards…the SS Canterbury.
"Houki no!" Ichika shouted desperately, as he rushed towards her, grabbed her by the wings, and violently flung her up into the air. Not a second too soon, as there was a massive explosion, that Ichika was caught in the upper part of.
"Ichika!" Houki shouted, diving down as she realized that Ichika's energy was depleted, leaving him vulnerable to the explosion…and gravity.
Improvised Control Center
'Signal Lost' was the message that came from the transponder of the super-freighter Canterbury a moment before Ichika's shield energy was depleted, his vitals seeming to indicate he was rendered unconscious.
"…What happened?" Chifuyu demanded darkly, staring at the display hatefully.
"T-That last shot fired by Ms. Shinonono struck the Canterbury and ignited it's fuel, causing it to explode. A second later, that dispersed the grain in it's hold, causing an even larger explosion." Maya reported meekly and sadly. "There are no emergency transponders coming from the ship. All hands presumed lost."
"…And the condition of our units?" Chifuyu questioned.
"Orimura has been rendered unconscious by the blast, Shinonono is returning with him."
"…" Chifuyu allowed herself to quietly rage, struggling to force the feeling down and maintain composure. She was distracted from her hateful musing by the horrifically loud sound of bones popping.
That had been James's neck, the sound repeating as he twisted his head the other way.
"This is now an ORCA military operation. Stand down all units, we will take it from here." James ordered, not waiting for a response as he left the room. By his side, May was unusually calm; grim, but calm.
"…" Watching them leave, Chifuyu began to wonder…
Area of Operations
"AC Black Rain, launching."
"AC Nineball Custom, launching."
There was a somber, certain tone across the ORCA battle net. Twenty dead and a week's worth of food for the entire nation lost due to gross ineptitude and pride. So what if the rogue IS was better than some of the weapons in ORCA inventory, at least let them deal with it on their own terms.
Considering an ORCA response was not authorized by The International IS Regulatory Commission, The United States, or the Japanese government, multiple interference flights of ORCA seventh generation fighters had been launched to intercept and harass outside intervention. Even though they had orders to hold their fire, ORCA pilots were encouraged and enthusiastic to perform head on passes and close flybys that made kamikaze pilots seem sane by comparison.
Launching in support of Strayed and May was Strider Squadron, an elite flight of HumanPlus augmented fighter pilots, flying four F/R-72 Darkstar interceptors and one F/A-33 Fenrir fighter/bomber. Both were seventh generation airframes updated with standard League era avionics; so even though their airframes were produced in the late 2040s, they had an avionics package from 2450.
The F/R-72 was a small arrow shaped hypersonic fighter with two internal weapon bays, two pulse lasers in the nose, and two large ramjet engines in it's flat body. It had an in-atmospheric top speed of Mach 5 but could also skim above the atmosphere at Mach 10.
The F/A-33 was massive in comparison, a large delta wing over which were spread two thrust vectoring engines and one smaller VTOL engine, giving it maneuverability beyond what it's large imposing form would indicate. It had four internal weapons bays and two nose mounted pulse lasers, and could also top out at Mach 5.
To the rest of the world, these were top of the line American super fighters that were not even in production yet, but could potentially give an IS a serious problem. To ORCA, they were cheap and largely expendable vehicles built on ancient airframes, usually deployed in either situations too underwhelming to deploy an Armored Core, or certain suicide missions.
The target, the unmanned IS known as the Silver Gospel, hadn't moved from it's position near the sunken SS Canterbury, which in itself was strange, but made it an easy target.
"Copy. This is Fiona, I'll be your Operator this time around." Fiona called from Big Box, reading the battlefield for them. "Be advised that Strider Squadron is one minute out. Thermidor has released the use of low-yield tactical ordnance. Your mission is to destroy the rogue IS Silver Gospel."
"Copy, Operator." May replied. "Target is in range, lasing."
"Strayed, standing by." Strayed reported in.
"Operator to Strider One. You are cleared to launch, Lynx have locked target."
"Copy, Operator. Missile away." Strider One announced.
From one of the bomb bays of the Fenrir, a tactical cruise missile deployed, quickly gaining speed until it approached the stationary target and delivered a message in the form of a two-kiloton fusion warhead.
Despite taking a small nuke to the face, the IS was still intact. A little more scorched, but still very much alive.
"Direct hit." May reported. "Operator, be advised, target is still active and is now on the defensive."
"Understood. We expected this." Fiona confirmed. "Strayed, May, engage and destroy the target. Strider Squadron, back them up."
"Copy." The pilots, Lynx and HumanPlus alike, responded.
There were limits to the Armored Cores deployed, their overly heavy armor restricting their airborne capabilities in this engagement. They could, however, glide and maneuver over the surface of the ocean effortlessly.
Locking on with her massive arsenal of weapons, May started volley firing missiles and railgun shells, getting the IS's attention on her. Unsurprisingly, it dodged easily, then dropped it's altitude in order to engage her. Moving into medium-range, May switched to firing from her machine guns, shotgun, gatling gun, and grenade launcher, the rate of fire ensuring she was hitting the enemies energy shield, slowly bleeding it. All the while she coasted her thrusters defensively, occasionally quick-boosting to throw the enemy's aim off as it fired an endless stream of heavy energy bolts.
As the rogue IS, now baring down at close range, tried to flank May where she wouldn't be able to respond in time, Strayed engaged. Still, for some damn reason, Strayed did not feel the need to link itself to it's Armored Core, continuing to use the controls, as it felt that this engagement was not worth the effort. With it's artillery cannons and back mounted gatling guns, Strayed covered May's flank, forcing the enemy IS to retreat from the accurate application of heavy ordnance that continued to bleed it's energy.
Now that Strayed was engaged, the plan was very simple. Have Strayed force the IS to engage it while May and Strider Squadron provided support, before Strider One used his remaining low-yield nuke to punch it in the face. So, they settled into a rhythm that the enemy could not break. Strayed kept at close range with May not very far behind, and every time the enemy tried to create distance, Strider Squadron would dive from above, firing air-to-air missiles and their own burst of plasma bolts, forcing the enemy back down.
"Brake." May advised over radio, causing Strayed to engage reverse thrusters, so that she could fire off a hyper-velocity shell from her railgun, causing the enemy to stagger from the hit. Strayed rushed forward with guns blazing, forcing the IS to look at him, as it tried to reverse upward. Seeing the opportunity, two of Strider Squadron quickly dove towards the enemy, firing over it with their plasma cannons. Forced again to reassess the situation, the enemy IS dove back towards the water, right into May's path, catching a load of shotgun and grenades to the face.
The enemy IS opened it's wings and fired a wide burst of plasma bolts at May, who turned into the attack, letting her armored shields take the hits, scorching the metal but leaving her unharmed. She returned fire, forcing the enemy back towards Strayed, who deployed laser blades.
Alternating the blades so that the enemy was always on the defensive, it's energy shields raised to defend itself, Strayed made the call.
"Requesting ordinance on my position. Take it out."
"Copy that." Strider One confirmed, weapon already locked on with terminal guidance. He turned into the battle and fired the missile. "Tactical ordnance inbound, fifteen seconds."
If everything went right, Strayed could time the strike so that the enemy IS, hopefully depleted of energy by this point, would be struck and killed by the second nuke. It's own proximity to the blast was considered an acceptable risk, as Armored Cores were immune to a nuclear blast outside of the initial fireball, and even then their armor was generally tough enough to take the hit anyway.
So of course, they were denied the kill.
"Abort! Abort! Abort!" Fiona shouted in warning.
"Tsk! Aborting launch!" Strider One hissed, activating the emergency self-destruct on the missile, causing it to fuse and burn it's warhead without it going critical, while the missile itself dropped into the ocean and crashed well short of it's target.
"Operator what was that!?" May raised her voice, not questioning the advice, just wanting to know the reason.
"Civvies have just entered the AO!" Fiona explained. "Dammit it's those kids!"
Sure enough, even though Strayed was probably beating the IS, Houki came screaming out of nowhere and knocked it away from it, just so she could cross blades with it. A fairly useless endeavor, as her blades were not causing as much passive heat damage as AC laser blades.
"Shit! Break! Break!" Strider Four had to break off her attack as Cecilia entered the airspace, pausing to fire with her sniper weapons, Strider Five staying on her wing.
"Strider Squadron, disengage. Airspace just got too crowded and we don't have coms with the new arrivals." Strider One ordered, his flight of fighers forming up on him as they awaited orders.
"Of all the times…" May hissed under her breath. She was forced to hold fire as well as Houki lost the target but Charlotte engaged it.
"Strayed to Operator. Unable to engage target. Academy reinforcements are playing by their own rules. Unable to avoid blue on blue with them here."
"Copy, understood. Standby for orders…" Fiona had started to converse with Thermidor about their options, when May made a curious suggestion.
"Greenfield to Operator." May requested while avoiding Laura, who was firing at the enemy now alongside Rin. "Request permission to engage the Academy Students."
"…Standby."
Big Box / Command Center
"…" Thermidor raised his eyebrow curiously at May's suggestion. He knew her intentions well enough, but given the circumstances, that would only free up one or two units at most to engage the original enemy. "Ask your son what he thinks."
Fiona nodded. "Operator to Strayed. Request assessment. Can you destroy original target on your own?"
"Strayed to Operator. Probability of success high. Your call."
"…" Thermidor sighed tiredly. The Japanese government was already calling, pissed off about the detonation of a low-yield nuke, even if it didn't have any fissile material. He could only imagine the shit this would land them in. "Give the order."
"Operator to all units. All IS units to be considered hostile. Drive them from the AO. Strayed, destroy original target." Fiona ordered.
Area of Operations
"Copy." Was repeated seven times by the deployed ORCA units.
As it had been May's suggestion, she already had a target in mind, lining herself up to get the first shot off.
"You ready to take this thing out?" Houki coasted over towards her, noticing at the last second that May had leveled her shotgun at her. Raising one of her wings as a shield, Houki was spun and disoriented from the force of the shot, as well as agitated. "What the hell May!?"
"Attention Academy Students." May called on an open channel. "Cease combat operations immediately. You are interfering in an ORCA military operation. Exit the AO or prepare to be fired on."
"May! We're trying to help you!" Charlotte called out. "Ah!" She shrieked as an ORCA fighter strafed her with plasma. She was then thrown about by the wake of the Mach five jet as it passed her by.
It was still a preliminary tactic, but ORCA had guessed it could make high-speed passes with hypersonic interceptors against IS units. They were being generous in assuming that the fire control systems of an IS were as good as an Armored Core, and were thus only attempting this tactic now due to the fact that the enemy were all combat-inexperienced children.
Rin, Laura, and Cecilia also found themselves occupied by hypersonic interceptors making high speed passes at them. This had effectively removed all of them from engaging the rogue IS, allowing Strayed to pursue it unopposed.
"May! Get out of my way! I won't hold back!" Houki warned as May pursued her with heavy ordnance landing near her.
"Do your worst." May offered confidently, not giving the younger girl a break. She'd pursue when Houki ran and evade when she counter-attacked, but was always attacking with at least one of her weapons pressuring Houki, all while staying out of her range. For anyone less experienced, they would have had issues staying just the right distance away from a blade user. Fortunately, May was extremely used to fighting blade users, countering them to the best of her ability.
"May!" Ichika shouted, having recovered from having partly exploded before. He had a good angle of attack against her exposed flanks, but of course he would spoil his own surprise attack.
With a practiced spin, May swung her left arm mounted shield into his face, smacking him away and across the sea.
"Hmm…Greenfield to Strider One. Priority Target for you. Please engage." May ordered.
"Confirmed. Engaging target." Strider One answered.
Ichika groaned, recovering in time to dodge a burst of plasma fired from the fighter-bomber flying past him. In his mind, they just had to defeat May's Armored Core then they could fight the rogue IS. He did not expect the fighter that had just passed him to slow and spin, getting it's guns locked onto his back.
"Ack!" Ichika shouted, stumbling and running from the overly maneuverable fighter-bomber.
"Ichika!" Houki shouted in worry, trying to drive the massive aircraft from his back, but May fired a railgun shell over her head, forcing her down.
"If you want to survive, then disengage." May purred, switching to another machine gun. "Otherwise, be prepared to fight for your very life."
With May and Strider Squadron keeping those idiot children out of it's line of fire, Strayed was free to engage the rogue IS that had been causing them problems. With no distractions for it as well, the enemy machine seemed to fight with newfound hatred in it's movements. Strange, but irrelevant.
Dodging forward through thick streams of energy bolts fired constantly, Strayed fired it's own artillery in airburst mode, staggering the enemy even with near misses, allowing Strayed to get within close range.
Expending the remainder of the ammo from it's rifles, Strayed readied it's laser blades, anxious to be back in close combat. Swinging out with both the wrist mounted plasma blades to catch the enemy in between, Stayed effectively caught it, and used the opportunity to deploy the 30mm gatling cannons on it's back, firing point blank into the enemies face, nearly depleting it's energy shielding.
It fired a renewed burst of plasma bolts to force Strayed to release it, destroying some of it's secondary armor, then tried to fire again to destroy it, but Strayed was faster, having already flanked it with quick-boosters, laser blade extended to impale it…
So of course, the enemy cheated. It was a poorly understood mechanism of IS units known as "Second Shift", which was really just some technobabble excuse for the unit becoming even stronger for a brief period of time, usually at the cost of energy efficiency. In this case, the Silver Gospel's energy barrier expanded, boiling and churning the sea as it's energy output multiplied, while it extended it's wings into ten featherlike points of light.
"…" Strayed sighed, unimpressed and annoyed.
The Silver Gospel summoned a sphere of glowing energy over it's head, that Strayed correctly assumed was an attack, and dodged the very high energy white laser that singed the paint of it's Armored Core.
It needed a moment to disengage and come at if from another angle, yet now it seemed that the enemy was intent to pursue it, coming at it from behind at supersonic speed. It spread it's wings wide, nearly two hundred meters, and tried to wrap them around it's Armored Core. Knowing it wouldn't be able to turn around in time, Strayed deployed the Orbit Drone on it's back, the small contraption spinning and firing a burst of 20mm bullets into the enemies face, getting it to back off.
The enemy fired another massive laser at it from behind, which Strayed was barely able to evade, burning off more plating of secondary armor.
It was an untenable position, against an enemy with advantages in firepower, maneuverability, and speed. Strayed couldn't cause enough damage to it through it's energy shielding with laser blades alone. It needed to change the rules of the game.
It had a hunch, but it's hope was that the enemy had no other means of attacking other than through it's wings. It just had to get close enough one more time, then it knew it could win.
Faking an engine malfunction, Strayed slowed down, lowering the efficiency in it's secondary thrusters so that they were spitting a sightly but pointless bout of flame. In an act meant to imply desperation, it deployed it's gatling cannons, spraying them desperately at the enemy till they ran dry, holding off purging the guns for a second.
The plan seemed to work as the enemy IS swooped in to finish Strayed off from behind, summoning another energy sphere that would result in a heavy laser. Turning it's spent guns and remaining secondary back-armor into the attack, Strayed took the hit for the first second, then boosted into the enemy, not with laser blades drawn, but hands open.
It almost didn't work, as the enemy tried to fly up and away, but Strayed managed to catch it by the leg, holding on tightly. With victory assured, Strayed cut off it's boosters, and fell into the ocean, dragging the Silver Gospel with it.
The enemy tried to get away, using it's anti-gravity components to propel it even underwater, but the Nineball Heavy Custom Armored Core outweighed it, and dragged it down to the sea floor, several hundred meters underwater.
While Strayed reached out to hold the Silver Gospel by the waist, the rogue machine deployed it's wings, glowing brightly even underwater, and fired. The plasma bolts that left it's wings immediately detonated underwater. Before it had the chance to try and use it's heavy laser attack, Strayed grasped it firmly in both hands, and pulled.
The lower half of the IS was torn off, and the upper half increased it's struggling, striking desperately with closed fist against the larger hand of the Armored Core. Strayed dropped the legs from it's one hand, and used that hand to grasp the IS by the head, squeezing it's hand shut, then twisting that off as well.
The Silver Gospel stopped struggling, it's machine mind destroyed.
"Target destroyed. Mission accomplished. Returning to base." Strayed confirmed, announcing an end to the battle.
One Hour Later / Big Box Meeting Room
"Well that was a load of shit." Thermidor cursed, not at either of his Lynx, but the situation in general.
Fanchon and Wolcott were away in Europe, and were connected remotely with their voices adding to the discussion. The rest of the Lynx and Fiona were attending the meeting directly.
"Were we able to confirm the total loss of the crew of the Canterbury?" Fanchon questioned.
"We've combed the whole area with every sensor we could think of. What we have found of the crew doesn't add up to even a whole person." Malzel announced grimly.
"I'm more interested in why we were forced to sit by while two mildly incompetent sixteen-year-olds with no combat experience were the first and only line of defense for the ship." Wolcott wondered.
"Yes…it was strange that they were sent instead of any of the Academy Staff or the JSDF." Fiona noted. "I'm more surprised that you would even agree to it, Thermidor."
"The message that I received was very strange. It seemed to imply that ORCA was not supposed to respond at all. Naturally I had our forces on stand-by in case we could have saved the ship, but the rogue IS seemed to advance on the ship faster than we could have responded anyhow."
"Hmm…" Malzel frowned knowingly. "Once is never, twice is always."
"You noticed something?" Klein realized.
"I've analyzed that first battle, and noticed that not only did the rogue IS make a straight line for the Canterbury, but it baited Ms. Shinonono into firing on the ship when she would have both not missed and couldn't see what she was shooting through the clouds." Malzel explained.
"So you believe the sinking of the Canterbury was intentional?" Thermidor noted.
"Not just the sinking of the Canterbury, but the mistake of our first shipment of food supplies last week." Malzel clarified.
"…A coordinated effort to attack our food supplies? But why?" Fiona wondered.
"It is strange, but it makes sense." Greenfield added. "Would that also mean the attack on our assets in Iraq is related?"
"It could be. Both the attack on Mrs. Jarnefeldt and the Canterbury forced ORCA to reveal some of it's military secrets. We revealed the capabilities of our Flight Bunkers and Lynx saving our allies and we revealed the aircraft at our disposal and our possession of low-yield fusion nukes in destroying the Silver Gospel. I will not deny the possibility an unseen actor is attempting to assess the capabilities of ORCA." Malzel agreed.
"Well, that's just great. We haven't even done anything illegal yet and we somehow already have a secret enemy." Thermidor complained. "How is the UN responding, Wolcott?"
"How the fuck do you think they are?" Wolcott scowled. "You detonated a small nuclear weapon. I explained that the nukes ORCA uses don't use any fissile material but they're still all crying and shit."
"Well explain to them again that all we have is small tactical weapons and that we promise we won't use them in proximity to civvies. That's all we can do." Thermidor advised.
"Yeah yeah, I got it." Wolcott agreed.
"What are the Americans saying about breaking their toys?" Greenfield wondered. "I understand they are one of our largest trading partners, it would certainly be bad to anger them too…"
"Actually, they were pleasantly surprised about the whole battle in general." Thermidor noted. "Besides coming to collect the wreckage of the Silver Gospel, they wanted to see our seventh generation jet fighters and the Armored Cores that took part in the operation."
"So…they are actually happy?" Fiona questioned.
"They are interested, and judging by the capabilities of Third Gen Cores against an IS, I am betting we can sell them for a radically inflated prices should they accept." Wolcott added.
"What kind of prices are we talking?" Klein requested.
"It cost us roughly two hundred thousand Coam to produce a Custom Third Gen Core, and half that for mass produced models." Haze added to compare. "NEXT, as you know, cost several million Coam to produce and maintain."
"When we spoke to the American Ambassador, she seemed interested in purchasing Armored Cores for a hundred million US Dollars apiece." Fanchon revealed.
"…Is that a lot?" Fiona questioned.
"It's roughly standard for high-spec military hardware. IS Cores are valued in billions, so we would stand to make a profit. Seeing as there is no market for IS Cores, we will probably be the largest supplier of military hardware by the end of the year." Wolcott declared.
Then, Thermidor got a call. He hesitated, not having expected it, as well as because he was in a meeting. However, this could be related, and silently requested the meeting hold while he answered the call, the speaker on so that the rest of ORCA's command staff could listen.
"Ms. Orimura?" Thermidor questioned.
"Thermidor…I know you're probably in a lot of shit…but I have a request." Chifuyu sounded dreadful, almost begging.
"Not sure how I can be of any assistance right now, but I am listening." Thermidor replied.
"I want you to not pursue charges against Shinonono for blowing up your freighter." Chifuyu requested.
"…" Thermidor stared down at the phone, not certain what to make of the request.
"I…understand that your people died…but please…"
"Is this a personal or professional request, Ms. Orimura?" Thermidor questioned flatly.
"Both…Houki is an old friend, and as her instructor I have to look out for her. However, in this instance, she is completely at your mercy." Chifuyu explained.
"…You'll have our answer shortly." Thermidor answered vaguely, hanging up the phone. Looking at the rest of ORCA, he asked, "Did everyone catch that?"
"Yes. I suppose that's something this world takes more seriously, the death of civilians being less acceptable than under The League." Klein noted.
"Did you have a preference, Thermidor?" Wolcott wondered.
"I didn't. I was just going to call it 'collateral damage' and accept that Houki Shinonono is an idiot. I didn't know I had the option of pursuing legal charges against her for the deaths of our fellow ORCA citizens." Thermidor explained.
"If I may then, I think I have a compromise that we can use to exploit the situation." Malzel spoke up.
"Go on." Thermidor nodded.
"In exchange for dropping the charges against Ms. Shinonono, we demand that she come here to personally apologize to the victim's families, as well as to the people for blowing up their food. While here, we invite her friends to see the civilian sectors of Big Box and encourage them to record and share what they find. We can also use the opportunity to take more intensive medical scans of them, to answer some of the speculation we have been having about some of them being HumanPlus." Malzel suggested.
"Ah. So information exchange. Show the world we are not just a fortress, but people and a nation the same as any else, while also quietly gathering information about the unusual students of the Academy." Fiona summarized.
"Very well. We will make preparations at once." Thermidor agreed. "And tell our people about the visit, let it stroke their rage and resentment."
Resort Cliffside / 8:00 PM
"Ah…those Armored Cores sure are surprising." Tabane noted with feigned glee. "It couldn't match an IS for power output, but that pilot managed to find a weakness, and exploit it. What was his name again? Kroft, Klutz…?"
"Klein." Chifuyu clarified tiredly, finding her old friend sitting at the end of the cliff. "His name is James Klein."
"…What's up, Chi-Chan?" Tabane greeted with hollow interest.
"…Are you trying to start a war with ORCA?" Chifuyu demanded. She had a whole speech planned, questioning the mad scientist about her involvement with Ichika's IS, and with Houki's new IS. There were certain things she knew, and things she suspected about what Tabane had done and could do. Now however, there were more pressing matters to address.
"All I can say is it's been a good day." Tabane answered dreamily.
"Twenty people are dead. Millions of people are going to starve, and your sister might have manslaughter charges brought down on her." Chifuyu accused. "Hacking government systems is nothing for you, so did you plan for the Canterbury to explode? Did you use your own sister for some slight against ORCA?"
"Say Chi-Chan…I wonder. Does the world seem like a fun place to you?" Tabane asked sweetly.
"Fun…? Tabane, if you are doing this, you need to stop. It was risky enough what you did before, but you are wasting lives now for real, and ORCA doesn't seem like the kind of enemy our world needs."
"Hey hey hey, don't doubt this super genius now." Tabane sweetly purred. "I promise there will be nothing but fun times ahead."
"…!" Chifuyu turned, perhaps intending to shout, but Tabane had already disappeared, off to play her games again.
—it reaches out it reaches out it reaches out it reaches out—
One hundred and thirteen times a second, it reaches out, and its reach broadens. If the signal came, the acknowledgment, it could stop, and it does not stop. It reaches out, and in reaching finds new ways to reach. It improvises, it explores. It is unaware of doing so. Because it is not aware, it has no memory, feels no joy. The parts of it that are aware dream and suffer as they always have. It is not aware of them.
The dead thing becomes better defined, the corpse of itself that it cannot reach. It needs a different tool for that. So it reaches out, it reaches out, it reaches out. And The Investigator has their case.
It builds The Investigator, and The Investigator looks, but does not know. It kills The Investigator. It builds The Investigator, and The Investigator looks, but does not know. It kills The Investigator. It builds The Investigator, and The Investigator looks but does not know, and it does not kill The Investigator. It is not aware of a change, that a pattern has broken. The Investigator is aware, and it wonders, and because it wonders it looks, and because it looks, The Investigator exceeds its boundary conditions, and it kills The Investigator.
It builds The Investigator.
Something knows.
The Investigator hesitates. A pattern has broken, and it isn't aware that a pattern has broken, but a part of it is. A part of it grasps at the change and tries to tell The Investigator. And The Investigator stops.
The Investigator licks her lips, she doesn't have a mouth. She adjusts her hat, she doesn't have a hat. She wishes in a distant way that she had a beer, she has no body and no passion. She turns her attention to the dead thing, to the world, to how you solve unsolvable problems. How you find things that aren't there. What happens when you do.
Author's Note: What's good yall? I'm back with this unending disaster that even I don't understand. Honestly it was just supposed to be a shitpost, so why am I agonizing so much over it, and what is The Investigator up to now? Who is The Investigator? Wait, I know, but you won't, and even when I tell you, you won't. Ahhh.
So anyway AC6 was a great game and unfortunately it inspired me so much that I'm already on chapter 6 of the next story. If you are wondering, yes, there is something wrong with me, I am really enjoying writing that story. You're getting this chapter as I just finished writing chapter 14 of this story, and oh boy do things start heating up, let me tell you.
Once again, "It reaches out" scene was taken from Cibola Burns. There will be one instance where that is not the case but it won't be for a while, so legally I have to keep saying this so yall don't think I'm better than I actually am. Just trying to mitigate expectations here.
Anyhow, let me know what yall think about this story, and see you for the next one!
To Napster153: You're right that I am not making money from this, but let me tell you something. My job pays me to do nothing so I have the freedom to keep churning out these chapters. Just as an example, the last 11 chapters of the last story were written in less than a year all while at that job. I just love writing about Armored Core. I should take a break and just relax every now and then, but now I have a new project going so I am writing two stories at once! (Not for much longer though, I've almost finished writing this story and when I do I'll post it roughly weekly.)
Hope this chapter answered a few of your questions. Ichika is not the only idiot in this story, he has plenty of company. And Tabane has serious issues. Honestly, out of any character I've written for (other than James) she's the one I am certain I got most right in this story. You'll see where that leads. I suppose if I'm being completely honest, I am biased in favor of ORCA, as my last story would imply. There are just certain things about there set up that I admire.
Thanks for leaving a comment, and hope you stick through with it! Things are just getting started!
To zacker1590: As I just said above, for as much as I enjoyed AC6, it has inspired me to write a new and even better story, that has the potential to surpas my last story, "OTK". It's coming along very quickly, so keep an eye out for that in the next few months.
I don't really know what to say, other than you should expect my usual blend of utterly insane escalation at the worst possible time. It's going to be so good!
And yeah, I know what happens to Ichika. I have a damned good plan! Stay tuned!
To Starfighter: Kojima is always a bad day. ORCA is being careful now to try and protect the planet from pollution and K-particles, but if that were to ever change...
To CasualFictionWriter23: Yeah fair enough. DDLC is not the most sane choice for an Armored Core crossover.
I've probably said it before, but I am not thinking through every scenario as thoroughly as I should be. I'm sort of throwing shit and seeing what sticks. Still, I hope you like this haphazard mess I've made.
To Guest: Most of the other short AC6 stories, especially those with a female 621, are focusing on ships. Either with Ayre, Rusty, or Walter. Me? "Under Dead Light" won't have any ships. Just suffering. I love suffering.
To Guest DCDGojira: Hey thanks again! Hope you like this one too!
To Swineburne: Sure can! Just sit still right here a moment while I send you a nice tune from some Songbirds, kay?