Chapter 9 Wrong Answers Only
He'd gotten back to his room somewhat later than expected. He'd been held up in the changing room. It happened.
May wasn't in their room. That was to be expected since she and Tatenashi had become a…thing. It was whatever. He had things he had to take care of anyway.
"Hey."
She had very similar hair to Tatenashi, but with blue eyes, barely hidden behind her narrow-brimmed hat. She wore an old, dark coat, as she leaned against a desk.
It was the first time in a long time that James felt anything approaching fear. It had been thoroughly beaten and broken and programed out of him since he had been eight years old. Yet the girl in the hat brought that all back.
Her name was Judith, and it was impossible. He watched her die.
"We need to talk."
Big Box
"Yes, what is it?" Thermidor questioned.
"Sir, I have some interesting information I thought you should know." Malzel declared. "We've just intercepted an encrypted message from a military base in the United Kingdom."
"Malzel…are you spying on our allies? I am very disappointed in you." Thermidor chastised. "So what did you find out?"
"A high security research facility was attacked by a young girl armed with an IS unit. She apparently stole another IS unit that was in development at the time." Malzel explained. "The message claimed that an organization known as 'Phantom Task' was responsible."
"Phantom Task?" Thermidor repeated. "And they are armed with multiple IS units? Hmm." He smiled. "How fascinating. Be sure to disseminate that information to the other Lynx. They should be aware at all times."
"Yes sir."
Saturday, July 20th / IS Academy
It wasn't real. It also wasn't a ghost. But it was still there. That just made it worse.
Fortunately, it had one rule that he could ascertain so far. It couldn't talk to him while he was in close proximity to anyone. For the antisocial James however, that made it particularly difficult to contend with. May was spending a lot of time with Tatenashi, and explaining to them that he needed to watch them have sex so he didn't have to talk to a ghost wasn't a conversation he wanted to have.
That left Ichika, and while he might never have sex, the conversations between him and his harem were painful enough to sit through.
"Ahhh!" Ichika moaned despondently. "I just don't want to do it tomorrow!"
"Relax my bride. You know we are all helping with the event tomorrow." Laura assured him.
"I think it will be a lot of fun." Charlotte added.
"…" What were they talking about again? Ah, that's right. For the culture festival or whatever, their class had set up a maid cafe event, entirely for the purpose of seeing Ichika dress like a butler. James had conveniently volunteered to help with an engineering project down at Big Box so he wouldn't have to attend, so he felt comfortable ignoring the conversation.
"It's just not fair." Ichika complained. "How come I have to be the only guy there? Can't you be more helpful and participate, James?"
Fuck. "…Eh." James shrugged dismissively.
"You know, I really hate your attitude man." Ichika sneered. "I've been trying to be friendly with you and you aways just throw it back in my face. Can't you at least pretend to be interested in the school?"
"Yeah, you aways have a terrible demeanor James." Houki added, agreeing with Ichika. "Plus you were super disrespectful to Orimura sensei all of last week!"
There were exactly four words that he could say that would utterly destroy Ichika, and leave his little harem aghast. It was tempting to say, just for the thrill of seeing Ichika's reaction. It might even be fun to rile them all up to get them to fight him.
Except that he wasn't May, he didn't enjoy the stress and drama that these kids attracted. Even so, he hated being dishonest.
"Mi ta pashang sesata to, kopeng." Well, five words in Belter Creole, and a sixth just because he was feeling particularly gracious today.
Rin made a face of recognition at the word "pashang", as it was Chinese in origin, and meant something like "to do". Except that Belters tended to use the word far more deliberately, hence it's true meaning was lost to her.
Ichika recognized that he was being insulted, but not well enough to know that he should probably be trying to kill James for what he just said. "Man, just get out of here if you don't have anything nice to say."
"…" James shrugged, leaving the group to their own little drama. Why did he think that would be a good idea again? He wandered into an unused activity room, musing for a moment.
"He's the one you've been looking for huh?"
Oh that's right, the fucking ghost. James turned around and saw the girl sitting behind him, staring at the ceiling past the brim of her hat.
"It is not too late-what-what is your wish?" The girl glitched as she tried to adjust her hat, like her face moved independently of her head for a tiny moment.
Everything about her was wrong. Even though she had Judith's face, she didn't have her mannerisms, her method of speech, or her attitude. This was not the sweet and certain Lynx he once knew. This was not Judith. Not Judith.
"…So this is happening?" James asked the ghost.
"…Why do you insist…?" Not Judith wasn't asking him, talking to herself as she slowly turned her head in his direction, eyes hidden under her hat.
"You're not making any fucking sense but you're here…" James noted.
Not Judith bowed her head, giving a pathetic half smile of acknowledgement. It bothered him to look at her. He turned away again.
"Are you trying to talk to me?"
"Yes."
It was shameful for him to admit that a real person had snuck up on him while he was losing his fucking mind, but looking back, Chifuyu had taken the place of the ghost, sitting anxiously as she faced him.
"…What?"
"We should talk." Chifuyu admitted. She had an unbecoming look of being embarrassed.
"Okay?" James supposed this would be a more interesting conversation than with the ghost.
"We…need to be clear about certain things." Chifuyu hesitated. "You have to remember that I am first, and foremost, your teacher."
"…Oh, you're talking about last night." James realized.
"Yes I am talking about last night!" Chifuyu hissed. "Keep your voice down!"
"Why? It's no mind." James shrugged. "You didn't complain."
"I….yeah…but even so, do try to keep that a secret." Chifuyu stressed. "You're legally an adult, but our positions mean it's usually very frowned upon."
"Well, I am first and foremost a Lynx of ORCA. A foreign soldier to you." James clarified.
"Oh…I…hadn't thought of that." Chifuyu realized. "Even so, we still have our roles to play, so you can't be harassing me if you suddenly have an urge or something."
"That's something you should say to May." James dismissed. "I respect you for your strength. You proved that. Anything else is secondary to me."
"Huh…" Chifuyu was surprised at his behavior.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go check something." James left. Why did humans make relationships such a complicated issue?
Back in the privacy of his own room, James had hooked his head up to some equipment, looking for a possible answer.
There was something.
It was listed as a low priority executable file running background of his usual systems, but every time he noticed it, it was sent to some other folder. Since it was just affecting his audio and visual sensors, and not trying to access his control functions, it wasn't triggering his anti-virus defenses, and he was having a problem tasking his defense programs to destroy a file that didn't exist when viewed.
"It's those damn doors and corners. I mean, that's where they get you."
James looked behind him, finding Not Judith sitting on the bed, muttering to herself without looking at him.
"You don't walk into the middle of a crime scene without knowing there's not somebody there to put you down." Not Judith emphasized despondently, shaking her head. "It's the thing you don't see coming. That's what it is." She whispered, frowning.
James stood, shaking his head in frustration. "What's with the hat?"
Not Judith looked up, noticing him for the first time. "Keeps the rain off my head." She answered as if it was obvious.
James looked back at his diagnostic equipment. "You're just a program, running around the corners of my mind, what the fuck do you want?"
"There's this…this rookie, down in Star Helix." Not Judith had moved, standing behind the bed. "Kid never learned to clear a room. I kept telling him, I said 'There's doors and corners, kid, and if you don't clear the room, if you don't…come in slow…that room will eat you.'"
"Why are you telling me this?" James demanded desperately.
"ChhChh!" Not Judith hissed, holding up her hand to stop him. "I'm supposed to think about this." She looked away, and kept whispering. "Ah, this could mean something."
"I watched Judith die. There's no way you could be her." James assured himself. "That's how it ended."
"I don't want to talk about…Judith." Not Judith shivered.
"You're not a real person. You're dead!" James accused.
Not Judith sighed, looking down. "I'm just an investigator now." Looking up, she stared right through him. "I find things."
"Okay…Okay…what are you trying to find?" James tried to reason with the ghost.
"…Local Griega. They were running this unlicensed brothel down in sector eighteen." Not Judith stated with dire urgency. "Coriolis was so bad down there, it really made you sick."
She was talking about a gang of low-level Belter thugs on Ceres. So…wrong planet. Wrong timeline. What the fuck was she on about?
"I don't give a fuck about some random Belter thugs in another universe until you tell me what it means!" James shouted.
"The local Griega!" Not Judith said again with absolute seriousness. "They're running an unlicensed brothel down in sector eighteen. Now down there-"
"Fuck you! Fuck you!" James was annoyed with the mad ramblings of the insane program. Not Judith frowned, seemingly unimpressed. "My head is clear! You're not here, which at least explains the stupid fucking hat!"
May was staring at him from the doorway, eyes locked on him as she tried to figure out what was going on. She wasn't smiling.
Noticing her, James took his eyes off Not Judith, and when he looked back, she was gone.
"That may have looked weird." James admitted, a little embarrassed.
"Hey, none of my business." May dismissed, deciding it was too weird even for her. "Are you good James…?" She pointed at the cable in his head.
"Yeah." James twisted the cable, pulling it out of his neck. "I'm alright."
"Look…if there's anything you need to get off your chest…I'm not much help…but I also don't judge." May offered, giving him a weak smile.
"You're a good person, May." James admitted.
"Things have been weird for a while now." May noted. "There's only so much us weapons can take. Especially with this quantum bullshit and anomalous exosuits, not to mention being in the wrong timeline and having to work with your old rivals. Trying to build a nation out of terrorists…? So vent away, break some shit if you have to, I don't care. Just…not Tatenashi…please?"
"…I'm alright, May." James lied.
May cocked her head, knowing it was a lie.
"I mean I will be all right, and if I'm not, you'll be the first to know, okay?"
"Okay." May accepted the answer. She walked away.
James remembered that May had installed a camera in their room for…reasons…and that he had access to it. Pulling out his phone, he brought up the video from a minute before, and watched as he had a conversation with himself. Not Judith was not there.
"Could be something."
Not Judith was there.
"It'll eat you."
James turned around, and caught Not Judith staring at the ceiling, her back facing him.
"I find things."
He was getting desperate for an answer, to understand this program or ghost or curse haunting him with a face he absolutely did not want to see.
"You were saying something?! The Griegas in sector eighteen? The rookie?"
"Hmm?" Not Judith turned around, looking at him in confused surprise. "Have we talked before?"
"Do…do you even know you're here?" James questioned the specter.
"Hmm? Yeah, sometimes." Not Judith adjusted her hat. "I, uh…When I exceed my boundary conditions, that's when they kill me."
"Who-who are they?" James wondered, how deep did this program run?
"Huh?" Not Judith looked at him in surprise again.
"Why-why me?" James thought he might actually lose it. "Why are you in my head?"
"Eh, cause you exist." Not Judith paced. "So you're a tool that goes places. I'm a tool that…finds things. We're uh…we're tools." Not Judith smiled sadly, rubbing her hands together.
"…Tools?" James wondered. Not Judith was not Judith. An intelligence without intelligence. Existence without existence. He was tempted to reach out and touch this not thing that didn't exist.
"Ah…" Not Judith sighed, her face scrunched up in disapproval, and shook her head. James retracted his hand. He had a thought, the one thing he changed before he started seeing her.
"You showed up after I connected to that AC I've been using. Is it using you to get to me?" James questioned.
"Ah~" Not Judith sung. "It reaches out." She wandered across the room, caught in her own spell, as she uttered on and on. "One hundred and thirteen times a second, it reaches out, but nothing answers. So it builds The Investigator and The Investigator looks…but she does not find, so it kills The Investigator it kills The Investigator over and over." She took a deep breath with lungs that did not exist as she stared down at her own hand. "And then it builds The Investigator again, and again, until…" Not Judith stared into the mirror. She did not have a reflection. She had a reflection. "Until it finds a door that wasn't there before."
It sounded like she'd been through it, too.
"What is it doing?" James questioned.
"Hmm?" Not Judith snapped her fingers. "So I'm at this, uh, unlicensed brothel, right?" She stared at James as if that meant anything. "The Griegas, down in sector eighteen. And this hothead rookie-I keep telling him you know, 'Watch your doors and corners, pal. You don't come rushing into a room, with your dick hanging out.'"
Oh no, he was going to go fucking insane.
That Evening
"Hey, we got to talk about that ride."
It was the only really new thing Not Judith would say, but every time he asked her to clarify she would just keep talking about brothels, space gangsters, and foolish rookies. He assumed that she wanted him to take her somewhere, but since she wouldn't clarify where, he couldn't go even if he wanted to.
He couldn't get rid of it, and he couldn't help it, at least he could get it to shut up.
He knocked on a door he wasn't typically supposed to knock on. It wasn't that he minded May's usual activities while he was in the room, but he was unsettled enough by Not Judith's appearance that he needed an outlet. He supposed May wouldn't mind sharing with him, but that would imply he was interested.
Chifuyu opened the door, somewhat surprised by his presence.
"What are you doing here?" She asked. "Looking for another good time?"
And that's what made this particularly more complicated. He didn't actually care for the woman despite their encounter the previous night. He just wanted the company to ward off the ghost. That would be something Ichika might admit, and despite his own failings as a human, James knew better than to say that. He'd have to come up with something that while not entirely true, wasn't exactly a lie either.
"Cold."
"Hmm?" Chifuyu turned her head in surprise.
"I hate the cold." James admitted.
"James…it's the middle of July." Chifuyu pointed out.
Ah. "Well…May's been on a particularly depraved binge with Tatenashi. It's…distracting."
"…" Chifuyu purred at the thought. "…Come in."
James strolled into her room, hands clasped behind his back, and noticed her open window, with the dark shape of Big Box sitting in ocean, it's massive looming size punctuated by the slow pulsing of red aviation obstruction lights. He stared at it, missing the certainty of a command structure, to fall in line and do as ordered.
"Do you miss it?" Chifuyu asked, moving to sit on the bed. "Home?"
"It's not a home, not for me." James answered calmly. "It's more of a…deployment. A job."
"Ah, I should have expected that." Chifuyu mused. "I meant that other earth? The world you were born on."
"That…hasn't been a home in a long, long time." James frowned.
"Well, surely there was something about that world you liked?"
There certainly was, but it was wholly unnatural. To move and wage war, to take life, to become like death upon a world drowning in ash and blood. There was no greater thrill or purpose for a Lynx than to live and die on the battlefield.
"We worked to live, and lived to work." James answered instead. "If we died while doing it then, hey, shit happens."
"…" Admittedly, it was something Chifuyu should have realized by now. Everything ORCA said of the world they came from characterized it as a dystopia ruled by greed and tyranny. The fact that Lynx super-soldiers were viewed as nothing more than an investment wasn't exactly surprising. "Well, tell me about ORCA. How did you join them?"
"Thermidor killed my stepfather."
"Wh-What!?" Chifuyu nearly shouted in surprise.
"Hang on, there's more to the story." James tried to explain,
"What. No. That's…" Chifuyu sighed heavily. "Assuming that is true, why would you willingly work for him?"
"…Ah." James nodded in understanding, "It was a fair fight to the death, and Thermidor came out on top. Yeah, I'll admit I'm not thrilled about it, but I don't hold it against him. Just another job is all."
"I…see…" Chifuyu reluctantly accepted. "Still, how does him killing your stepfather get you into ORCA?"
"Well, at the time, he was known as Otsdarva, top Lynx of The League. Except that he had been quietly moving people and resources around the world in order to facilitate a first strike against The League. During the battle against my stepfather…Anatolia's Mercenary…Otsdarva faked his own death, escaped, and came back as Maximilian Thermidor." James partially lied. He was not allowed to say that ORCA was ordered to oppose The League by The League. "Not long afterwards I was contacted and invited to rebel against The League, and I took my chance."
"I see, but what compelled you to want to rebel against The League?"
"The death of my whole family."
"Ah…" Chifuyu cursed at herself. She should have realized, what with him having stepparents.
"The thing is…" James decided to admit. "I don't really remember them. The augmentations sort of messed with my memory. I know I had a family, I know exactly how they died, but beyond that there's just nothing." He sighed. "It's frustrating…to have the rage and resentment and not even remember the face of my mother, or the name of my brother."
"And your father?"
"I have the impression that he'd been gone for a while."
"…How did they die?" She hated to admit that the morbid curiosity got the better of her, and the fact that James probably wouldn't mind.
"…Exceptionally violently."
"I…don't remember my parent's either." Chifuyu admitted, not realizing that James might know more than she suspected. "For the longest time it's only been Ichika and myself."
"Mmm." James hummed.
"Do you hate him? My brother?" She wondered.
"I'll admit he's not exactly my favorite person, but I don't hate him." James elaborated "Course he's got to really hurry up and court at least one of those girls soon. May already stole Tatenashi from him, she might get greedy and go for all of them."
"Heh." Chifuyu laughed, then considered that answer. "What's with that?"
"What's with what?"
"Just…how open she is about her sexuality?" Chifuyu questioned. "That's something most people are very private or embarrassed about. Even you don't have any shame about it."
"Why should we be embarrassed? Why should we be ashamed? As long as it's consensual, no one really gives a shit." James explained. "Course, that's not being a progressive society or anything, it's just that survival trumps all needs or considerations, so no one wastes time or energy getting excited about the sexual exploits of violent cyborgs like ourselves."
"I suppose that's true. Still, let's keep this between us."
"…" Oh…well, that was his fault for stumbling into that.
Sunday July 21st – Morning
"You know, when I said I needed a ride, that is not what I meant." Not Judith stared at him disapprovingly.
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Just cause you don't see me doesn't mean I'm not still watching." Not Judith squinted angrily. "I'm always behind your eyes, trying to do my job. You jackass."
It was an hour before the maid café event, and while he wouldn't be attending, James was helping by setting out the tables for the event, so he had the room to himself and his ghost.
Sharing headspace with a demon was bad enough, now he was getting used to the dead girl as well.
"Heh."
"Oh don't get me wrong, I'm happy for you. You are wound up too damn tight."
"…" James stared at the ghost for a moment, needing an answer. "Why do you look like Judith?"
"…Uh." Not Judith shrugged. "In order to do my job, I needed a face. I didn't have one of my own, you see, so I had to borrow one from your memory."
"From my memory?" James questioned.
"Yeah." Not Judith nodded. "Figured a dead person would be less confusing than a living one. Then I just had to see which would be most approachable for you. Shamir would have been too unsettling, while Julius would have been too deceitful on my part. And all the rest you'd never significantly interacted with."
"And that just left my ex?" James accused.
"Ah, it really wasn't my first choice, but it is the only one that made sense." Not Judith answered.
"…" James considered the ghost for a moment. Despite the fact that it very much looked like Judith, there were inconsistencies outside of her fashion choice. While she showed up on his main visual sensors, he had enough sensors across the spectrum to tell that she wasn't actually there. That and a range finder that said there was nothing where she stood. However, if he put all of his sensors on her at once…
His head started to hurt badly.
"Hey." Not Judith growled angrily. "I know I'm not exactly running the best simulation here, but having all of your eyes analyzing the space where I'm not stresses me out and, incidentally, fucks you up too. Don't do that again."
"Yeah, got it." James chuckled.
One Hour Later
Having successfully avoided the event, James waited on a transport to get him off the island and away from the school.
"You really are a selfish bastard, you know." Chifuyu accused as she waited to see him off.
"A fair assessment." James accepted.
"I really think you would benefit from trying to participate in events with the other students." Chifuyu suggested.
"You just want to see my ass wearing some tight little butler suit and doing that gentleman shit you know I can do but prefer not to." James accused.
"Maybe~" Chifuyu grinned dangerously.
The heavy thud of helicopter blades paused their conversation as a UH-60 Black Hawk with ORCA markings descended near them. Chifuyu noted the empty hardpoints on the aircraft for either fuel pods or weapons.
"I'll be back tomorrow." James announced.
"Good. You'd better."
"…" What the fuck was he doing, interacting with this human? The first time was fine, it happened. But since then he'd been giving the woman more attention that he would ever care to, inconvenience ghost aside. He needed to be back in the thick of it, back in violence.
Walking up to the landed aircraft, James briefly spoke to the pilot.
"Good morning sir! We're here to take you back to Big Box!" The ORCA pilot reported.
"Great. Now get in the back, Lieutenant." James cocked his head towards the passenger seats.
"…Yes sir!" The ORCA pilot immediately surrendered his seat to James, running past him to sit in the passenger cabin. It wasn't that James wanted to undermine the man, he just liked being in control of any aircraft he was in. He nodded to the co-pilot, and set about flying back to base.
Or, he would have, if there wasn't suddenly an alert across the ORCA battle net. James frowned at the alert, mostly because it included a no-fly-zone for all aircraft in the vicinity of Big Box. It wasn't a threat, more of a friendly warning, but still massively inconvenience.
"Right…power down." James sighed. "Lieutenant, go grab that civvie for me."
"Yes sir!" The pilot shouted back.
Chifuyu knew something was wrong as James turned the engines of the helicopter off, their blades slowly winding down. The pilot of the aircraft came running toward her, gesturing towards the aircraft.
"Ma'am! Lynx Klein want's a word with you!"
Confused and concerned, she walked towards the aircraft, seeing James grimace with his usual annoyance.
"So…either we are all about to die or I'm just being inconvenienced." James boredly reported.
"What…?"
"Ah, the big radar array on Big Box reported a ballistic missile fired from about six hundred kilometers to the north, headed in our general direction."
"The north that's…North Korea? You are certain it's going to hit here?" Chifuyu asked with dire concern.
"Well, either here, or Big Box." James added. "Either way it's going to be slightly warmer in a few minutes."
"How long do we have?"
"…Bout ten minutes." James answered.
Then the air raid siren on the island activated, warning everyone else.
Meanwhile / Bix Box
"Close all hatches, lock down all armored doors! Set condition to war!" Thermidor ordered in the command center.
The process of locking down the megabunker against incoming attack was designed to happen quickly, but still took time, especially if it was being used in non-war conditions.
"What's happening with our docks!?" Thermidor requested.
"We are bringing in all local cargo ship to our ports, they'll be protected with barely a minute to spare!" The Officer in charge of Naval Command reported.
"Good. Get our defenses online, we'll take the missile down before it hits!"
"Belay that!" Malzel insisted.
"Malzel?" Thermidor turned in surprise, but listened, trusting the man.
"Twice now we've revealed our capabilities in reaction to outside influence. I've just confirmed that the missile is targeting us, so there is no threat to the Academy. Wind is currently blowing eastward, so no threat to the mainland. Let the missile land, we can take the hit, and then we will destroy our enemies in totality."
"…Very well. Do as the man says! Deactivate all defense missiles and cannons! We take the hit!" Thermidor ordered with renewed vigor.
"Yes sir!"
"And send a message to our neighbors. Let them know we got this."
IS Academy
The knowledge that a nuclear missile was overhead had pretty well ruined everyone's day. That didn't mean it was hopeless.
It was entirely possible for an IS to intercept a ballistic missile. It had been done before. Still…
Chifuyu knew the theory, and was probably the most experienced IS pilot on the planet. Except that the second generation IS she currently had access to was nowhere near as over spec as Tabane's original prototype had been. Houki and Ichika might have better units, but she would never give them this task.
Activating one of the school's IS units with less than three minutes to impact, it was going to be close.
"Hang on!" May ran out to her, quicker than a person should considering the maid outfit she was in. Seems she did not share James's apprehension for that event. Several of the other student's struggled to keep up.
"May!? What the hell is it?!" Chifuyu demanded.
"We have telemetry on the missile. It is targeting Big Box. The Academy is safe." May assured her.
"Even so, I can't allow that missile to hit."
May grumbled. "ORCA has officially requested all capable parties to allow the missile to fly unmolested. Any attempt to intercept it would be considered an insult."
"What the hell? You're saying they want to get hit?!" Ichika shouted as he caught up.
"What does that mean? Does ORCA want to be nuked?!" Houki raised her voice.
"May, please. Explain what you mean?" Tatenashi requested urgently but calmly.
"Just trust us, we'll be fine." May assured her. "See?" She gestured towards the waiting helicopter overlooking Big Box in the distance.
James was either trying too hard to look cool or couldn't be bothered to give a shit. He had set out a chair and wore a set of stolen aviator glasses from one of the ORCA pilots, who themselves sat patiently in their aircraft unconcerned.
"James, what are you doing?!" Ichika accused. "Your home is about to be nuked!"
"Fuck man, keep your voice down." James winced. "Just sit back and watch the fireworks, as they say."
"Okay!" May cheered, sitting in the bay of the open helicopter, motioning for Tatenashi to join her. "Less than a minute!"
"I could probably still get up there in time, stop it from hitting Big Box. Are you sure…?" Chifuyu questioned.
"Yeah. It's totally fine." James gestured to the megastructure on the horizon. "You think The League would have bothered building it that big if it couldn't take a hit from some fissile nuke?"
"I do hope you're right." Tatenashi whispered.
It was an agonizingly long minute, unsettlingly calm to the chaos that followed. The reentry vehicle shot through the atmosphere at Mach speed and slammed into the roof of Big Box, it's payload entering criticality, and exploded with an unbearably bright light. All the humans present covered their eyes for the long second that the light was visible.
Looking back, the shock and terror of the sight revealed itself, the growing plume of a mushroom cloud rising quickly through thoroughly fucked sky.
But Big Box was still standing.
"Phh." James scoffed. "That's it?"
"Ah, what a shitty bomb." May complained. "It's probably just shat it's whole load of Uranium all over our roof."
The humans outside of ORCA stared at them with shocked disbelief. The two ORCA pilots waited patiently for their base to be cleaned.
Big Box
"That's it?" Thermidor sneered. "Fuck was that?"
"Reading that as an eighty-six kiloton explosion, sir." The Defense Officer reported.
"From a bomb designed for three hundred kilotons. Fucking disappointment." Malzel added.
"Right, send out CBR teams to clean the roof, there's probably more than half a nuclear core scattered up there stinking it up." Thermidor ordered. "Recall the Lynx, we're going to war."
Six Hours Later
"So yeah, that happened." Thermidor mused as he met with the rest of ORCA command.
"Yeah, what was that about? Why bother sending a nuke our way?" Wolcott questioned.
"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is a dynastic totalitarian state. Population of twenty-seven million. They have one and a half million military personnel, and they just recently activated another million in expectation of our eventual counterattack." Fiona read off. "We've had a…complicated relationship with them."
"Yeah, I've read the reports. Before we'd even made contact with the UN, the North Koreans claimed that Big Box was theirs, demanding Japan's unconditional surrender." Thermidor recalled. "What even?"
"Additionally, they were willing to trade what little food they had in exchange for mass production Armored Cores." Wolcott added. "They are even worse off at feeding their people than us. They were willing to let their own people starve in exchange for advanced military weapons."
"Last week one of our patrols found a squad of their special operations soldiers dead in an unused sector." Haze reported. "They had climbed a kilometer up the side of the fortress and gotten lost, starving to death. It's likely a submarine dropped them off before we'd set up our Sonar nets."
"That and the numerous global sanctions against trade with them and their repeated threats to bomb us for some reason means that our official policy towards them is to pretend that they don't exist." Malzel summarized. "Course…now that policy is likely to change."
"'Likely.'" Thermidor smiled darkly. "As of this moment we are at war. We will not rest until the very concept of this 'North Korea' is but a memory of a shit stain scraped off our boot."
"Agreed." Wolcott nodded. "They nuked us unprovoked. Even if we lost nothing but a few thousand man-hours, that is an insult we cannot abide."
"The only question we should be asking is how will we go about it?" Fiona suggested. "War to annihilate a whole nation is no small undertaking."
"Serena did suggest stuffing Lynx into a shell. That sounded fun." Klein reminded them.
"Yes. The shells are of such a size they could easily contain either two Next or six custom Third Gens, so we could deploy all six active Lynx with one shot across half the planet." Serena advised.
"And we would follow that up with strategic deployment of our Flight Bunkers." Malzel strategized. "Enough troops and aircraft to demilitarize their entire nation in a matter of hours. We've also finished equipping our frontline troops with appropriate kits. It's not an IS or an AC, but exosuit heavy infantry shock troopers should keep our men and women safe."
"And break the enemies will." Fanchon added. "I've seen how ORCA troopers fight. They spite themselves just for the chance to take one more life. Their hatred runs deep. It's admirable."
"Hmm…" Thermidor hummed sinisterly. "I've got a stupid idea."
"Oh I love stupid ideas!" Greenfield shouted supportively.
"Today is the twenty-first of July." Thermidor noted joyfully. "In ten days…"
"Oh…you…" Wolcott pinched her nose. "You want to delay our war of retaliation just to ironically attack on the anniversary of ORCA's war against The League?"
"But it is our day of retribution~!" Thermidor sung. "If there is one day that would be our most important national holiday, it would be that day!"
"And, we could use that delay to terrorize the North Koreans." Malzel suggested. "Their nuclear attack was so beneath us we will attack when it best suits us."
"So that when that day finally comes…we come at them with everything, and wipe them out in their entirety." Klein summarized gleefully.
Next Day / United Nations
When ORCA had detonated a two kiloton fusion nuke weeks before, no one had been happy, but everyone had acquiesced since it had released no significant amount of radiation and had been detonated over international waters.
The North Korean nuke, on the other hand, was so inefficient it had practically been a dirty bomb, prompting radiation scares in Hawaii, and forcing tens of thousands of cargo ships and aircraft to adjust their course to avoid the radioactive plume from the bomb.
Plus they'd detonated it in sight of the IS Academy, threatening the lives of students from nations around the world, meaning that even their usual allies, China and Russia, couldn't reconcile that fact.
Everyone else had their piece to say. More sanctions, more trade restrictions, more demands that North Korea dismantle their missile and nuclear program, without the promise that they would actually do anything to ensure North Korea was disarmed.
Then there was ORCA. Technically speaking Fiona was their ambassador to the UN, because she was human and freaked them out less. But for days like this, Thermidor wanted to be out there, making their claim and their will heard.
When it was his turn to speak, he strode up confidently and slowly, smiling all the while.
"In the world we came from, nuclear weapons were a dime a dozen." Thermidor told his story happily and energetically. "Nuclear weapons were sold openly on the market. With the right credentials, you could buy as many nukes as you wanted. As a former soldier of The League, I personally used and detonated nuclear weapons against targets, and I've taken many, many lives. So, when someone detonates a nuclear weapon on our territory, we are not insulted, we have not suffered a great loss, we do not seek retribution against the people of a sad, angry nation for the sins of their arrogant leaders. No…what we do now, we do out of apparent necessity."
Thermidor leaned over the podium; eyes opened wide with deadly seriousness. "As I speak, a wave of missiles was fired from strategically placed aircraft. By the end of my speech, North Korea will no longer possess a Navy. I have come here today to make our intentions clear. I am not going to mix things up with nice, sanitized language either. We do not desire reparations or sanctions. We do not want apologies or assurances. We will not accept a surrender, conditional or otherwise. Our aim is simple. We intend to kill every single member of the North Korean government, and every single armed combatant that they deploy. There will be no negotiations, and no warning. In fact…" Thermidor chuckled. "In a few days time, there will be a…holiday, an anniversary, of our declaration of war against The League. We thought it would be appropriate that our plan to invade and pacify North Korea would wait until then. Make no mistake, however. A state of war exists between our two nations, and we will eliminate them with extreme prejudice. Thank you, and if you are our enemies…we'll see you soon."
Nine Days Later – 13 Thermidor, 2030, 1:00 AM / Big Box
It had been a long week and change, probing the defenses of the unsuspecting enemy nation.
The sudden first strike against the North Korean Navy meant that the meager but powerful ORCA Navy was unopposed. Comprised of four heavy destroyers, one light aircraft carrier, and one large battleship, they were escorting a hastily made troop ship while pounding the west coast with heavy cannons and precision missile strikes, giving the impression that ORCA intended to conduct a naval invasion.
However, the constant flights of fighters, bombers, and troop transports across the nation meant that a coordinated paratrooper assault was just as likely, and since ORCA had the resources to conduct simultaneous flyovers of over a dozen major cities and military bases, it seemed that every night would be the main attack, with the fighters executing poorly equipped enemy fighters with beyond visual range missiles and League plasma cannons and the bombers dropping precision guided ordnance on vulnerable targets and carpet bombing airfields.
In their panic, the North Koreans had decided to split their forces into two. Half defending the boarder with South Korea, as there was still significant presence from American and South Korean units, while the other half pulled back and defended Pyongyang, their capital city.
But that was fine, it just made ORCA's job easier.
"The next couple of minutes are going to be very interesting." Thermidor announced. He was being broadcasted to the rest of ORCA, while the command staff themselves stood nearby. "The six active Lynx of ORCA will be launched via one of Big Box's main guns directly into the center of their capital city, where we will cause as much damage as possible before the rest of the big guns arrive. Once we touch down, Flight Bunker One will launch and touch down in the center of the same city, while glassing their main government building with the landing plume. They will supply the troops and artillery needed to decimate the half of their army they called back for defense. Flight Bunker Two and Three will touch down just north of their boarder guard and deploy forces to push them back against the South Korean border. Be advised that you are not allowed to engage forces that successfully cross the border. We are still on good terms with South Korea and we will not let our ultimatum interfere with that valued trade partnership."
"However, while on the subject of our ultimatum, our bombers have loaded up a different kind of ordnance than usual. Plasma bombs, basically the heat of a nuclear bomb but applied as gently as napalm. They'll be reducing every military structure we haven't hit yet into a fine ash. Consider that notification that your rules of engagement have been updated. While you are not to intentionally target civilians, neither will you go out of your way to avoid collateral damage if it means eliminating an enemy. Just use your best judgement in that case."
"With that said…" Thermidor smiled. "I'll see you there. Let's have a good war."
Five minutes later, with all six Lynx armed with custom Third Gen Armored Cores, and loaded into a ten-meter-wide shell via a carousel system, one of the main guns of Big Box fired.
It was a sky-splittingly loud boom, heard all the way to the horizon. The hypervelocity shell momentarily left the atmosphere, on course to strike a distant target hundreds of kilometers away.
The war then began in earnest.
Ten Minutes Later / Pyongyang, North Korea
There was no warning as a two-thousand-ton shell ten meters across slammed into the main parade avenue and skid until it softly struck a building. Less warning when the back of the shell slid open and a five-meter tall red Armored Core armed to the teeth stepped out, followed by five other Lynx piloted ACs.
"This is Thermidor, we have touched down. Send the rest." The leader ordered, causing the three Flight Bunkers back at Big Box to launch and follow. "Lynx. Let's get to work."
Strayed, Fanchon, Wolcott, Greenfield, and Thermidor immediately went on the attack, engaging the few guards in the city with high caliber weaponry and alerting the other million men garrisoned nearby to arm up and advance into the city. Malzel stayed back in a tank-type AC, defending the shell as it had a few tons of spare munitions used as balast.
"Intel counts two thousand vehicles and their crews inbound on this location. Spread out and take a lane, it's going to be a long fifteen minutes." Malzel advised, dual-serving as a local Operator.
Jumping from roof top to roof top, Strayed stopped to occasionally strafe the armored conveys with high-velocity 30mm rounds, tearing into the lines of inbound tanks and thinning their numbers.
"Be advised. Enemy command vehicle reported. Lasing." Strayed called out.
"On it~!" May sung, arming her railgun to decimate the distant command vehicle.
"Sky Eye, start marking targets for our missiles. Hit their back line, no one runs from this." Thermidor ordered the F/R-72 circling well above the battlefield, doing it's best to serve as recon. The integrated battle network operators assigned lock-ons to the rear of the North Korean lines, and in moments the deep missile racks on several of the deployed ACs were emptied, preventing the enemy from escaping from the city they had driven into.
"Tracking enemy helos." Fanchon reported. "Engaging." Using a medium weight AC specialized for arial engagements, she kept to the air, firing on the enemy gunships with large caliber rifles, knocking whole squadrons from the sky.
"This is Wolcott. Need artillery on these coordinates." The Lynx requested. Instantly, Strayed and Malzel applied their own artillery cannons to her request, wiping out a whole intersection of armored vehicles. "Thank you." She reported, before charging into the fray with her own medium weight AC.
And the carnage went on, and on, and on, with Armored Cores rapidly deploying and countering every enemy advance, wiping out thousands of men in a matter of minutes. Then the sky started to glow with unnatural white light.
"Flight Bunker One. Bring the rain." Thermidor ordered to the overhead megastructure still on it's breaking burn. The nine cannons on the roof of the flying block, six five-inch naval guns and three double barreled 1000mm Coilguns started firing down into the city, ripping up whole streets and eliminating the enemy a company at a time.
The Flight Bunker came down in the middle of the city, not far from hollow shell, and right on top of the main government building. As if in slow motion, the whole of the building was torn apart, set ablaze, and rendered into ash by the landing plume. What little of it remained was crushed by the landing legs, and the doors that opened along the sides, now disgorging the ORCA troops and vehicles all tasked with only one objective, destroy every military vehicle and kill every soldier.
The arrival of the Flight Bunker marked a shift to the battle, such that the Third Gen ACs were not a priority unit anymore. Drawn back to the main square for the lull in battle, Strayed saw the vast central square of the city, filled to the brim with thousands of dead infantry, their corpses piled high as they had been attempting to assault Malzel, who in return had been supported by his fellow Lynx in using large caliber munitions to break their charge, and their bodies. Strayed sneered in disgust. Their gunk was going to get stuck in the feet mechanisms of the AC.
"Damn, just look at these fat bastards."
Strayed wasn't sure what to make of the ghost that was Not Judith. It wasn't a threat, but it was distracting and annoying, but not so much that she would cause it to pose as many questions and frustrations as James. She was currently staring at a pair of large, bronze statues, each twenty-two meters tall. It seemed as though the sight of dead humans was beneath her notice as well.
"Hmm." Not Judith copied one of the statues, which were apparently the first and second supreme leaders of this soon to be former nation. She put one hand on her hip from behind while gesturing forward with the other. "Eh…you know, for a nation filled with starving people, these two sure seem to be living it up."
"…" Not even The League had been so arrogant as to spend the resources into making statues. The megastructures and Arms Forts of their rule were enough to remind all. Activating flight boosters, Strayed flew up to the head level of the statues, and decapitated both of them with a single swipe of a laser blade.
"Heh, nice." Not Judith gave the war demon a thumb's up, then looked up in surprise, pointing past it's AC. "Course, I think she might have something to say about that."
"…?" Strayed dodged out of the way as a red colored IS covered with large guns charged past it. The woman piloting it looking aghast at the work wrought by ORCA. She backed up to a wall, sneering hatefully.
"You…you devil bastards! We will never forgive you!" The woman shouted. "If it takes a hundred years or a thousand years, we will make sure that no one ever even remembers the name of ORCA!"
"…"
"With the power of this IS, I will personally destroy all of ORCA! Not just your soldiers! But your women and children! All of them! Bastards to be cut down! Even if I have to do it myself!"
"…" Strayed quietly fired a ranging laser, centering it on the woman's head. Now, all of ORCA knew about a priority target.
"The Democratic People's Republic of Korea will endure this insult! We will strike back a thousand-fold and become the most powerful nation in the world! And I will make it happen, with this IS! The-" Her head exploded, courtesy of a hyper-velocity railgun shell fired by May through the building from behind. Another weakness they had noticed about the IS, was that it could only protect the pilot from attack's they knew were coming. The protective energy shield wasn't always up.
"Oh shit!" Not Judith smiled, reappearing after the woman died. "Do you know who you just killed? That was one of your priority targets!"
"…" Ah, it couldn't tell, what with the woman yelling so much while alive, and missing her head while dead. "Strayed reporting. High value target eliminated. Good shot Greenfield. Returning to mission."
Next Day / Big Box
"So that was a war, I guess." Thermidor shrugged dismissively. "Did we lose anyone?"
"A few." Malzel sighed. "A few overzealous infantry charged into close combat with North Koreans at the border and got themselves surrounded and cut off. We lost two hundred and seventeen men and women."
"Still, two hundred for two and a half million was a small price to pay." Wolcott noted. "And, we even got a free IS."
"Yes. The IS we took from the corpse of their Supreme Leader was an unknown model, and an unregistered Core." Fiona noted. "We have it under heavy scan right now. Trying to figure out how it works and all."
"So there are far more that the 467 reported?" Klein questioned.
"It would seem, yes." Thermidor agreed. "Regardless, we completed our objective. The vast majority of the North Korean government and military are dead. The only survivors are from foreign embassies, who have promised immediate destruction of our nation."
"We decimated their industry and weapon making capacity, do they expect us to wait for them to rebuild it in a few decades?" Wolcott wondered.
"Apparently." Malzel shrugged. "Though that is doubtful. China has occupied the nation and has essentially installed a puppet interim government. They are keeping the whole nation as a demilitarized zone in order to keep a gap between themselves and South Korea. Even though that was their ally, they seem to consider our trade partnership more valuable and wish to keep a rogue nuclear nation from forming again. No one is particularly happy, but we made our statement clear enough. Attack us, and be wiped out."
"Yes. A job well done. Now, Greenfield?" Thermidor addressed. "You had something to add?"
"Last weekend, the students of the IS Academy attempted to restart the event that was somewhat interrupted the week prior. After their 'maid café' event and…some other show I don't know how to characterize, the students were attacked by two piloted IS units." May reported.
"Interesting. How did you hear of this event?" Wolcott wondered.
"Ah, I have something of an inside woman." May smiled.
"Tatenashi?" Klein guessed.
"Yeah. Anyhow, the two IS units had the same objective. One confronted Ichika and attempted to steal his IS, while the other ran interference to keep the rest from responding." May retold.
"I see. I'm going to assume they were successful in driving the enemy back?" Thermidor noted.
"Yes. Tatenashi was successful in protecting Ichika from the agent Autumn, as he is still an amateur and nearly lost entirely. The other combat unit, the one reported stolen from the UK, easily overwhelmed the rest of the students, but decided to retreat with Autum. They detonated the damaged IS but recovered the Core in their retreat."
"And these were agents of Phantom Task?" Malzel wished to clarify.
"Yes. They identified themselves as Phantom Task, and their involvement with Ichika's kidnapping years ago." May finished reporting.
"Interesting. It seems we have a new enemy to keep eyes on." Thermidor appraised. "And we'll be sure to eliminate them with the utmost efficiency when they rear their head's again."
Author's Note: I spent entirely too long over chapter 16 for what I got out of it. In my defense, I am easily distracted by the prospects of the next story.
Anyhow, here we are again with this disaster, and yeah it's just getting weirder all the time. So Not Judith and her scenes are directly inspired and maybe even copied from her role as The Investigator in TV show "The Expanse", as well as the books "Abaddon's Gate" and, you guessed it, "Cibola Burns".
That's all I got for you now. Stay tuned for next time, see you then!
To zacker1590: Yeah...NK was not going to last long against ORCA. That couldn't have gone any worse for them. You're right in that I already have plans for Ichika and his harem, and you cannot imagine it at the moment.
As for 621? I am writing an entirely separate story about them. They are not going to make an appearance in this world or story. It's going to be a sequel to my other story "OTK", so AC4A will be a part of the distant past for them. I also feel that League tech is better than either post-Fires Rubicon tech or PCA tech, but Coral tech is more of a match to League tech. That's all I'm going to say at this time.
To FoulerGlint60: Well I hope you are satisfied with what I provide! And yeah! The stage is just going to get bigger from here on out!
To Napster153: I just love using Belter Creole in my stories for some reason. It only started appearing more prominently in this story, but next story "UDL" it is also going to play an important role. So look out for that! And yeah, considering their feats, Strayed should be something feared by all, no matter what story they're in. That's why James "Strayed" Klein is probably my favorite OC (but 621 is shaping up to be just as interesting for UDL).
Also...first? Did you not catch that May/Tatenashi happened just halfway through last chapter? That's way more of a real pairing. Well, either way, glad you enjoyed it!
To mega1987: Yeah but they have to feel it's even worth their time. I wonder what might force them into that position...?
SignalHunter: Tabane is still just playing around at this stage, sacrificing cheap and expendable pawns to learn more about ORCA. ORCA has the hard job of eliminating it's enemies with extreme prejudice while also keeping their full capabilities a closely guarded secret. As far as a White Knight incident...they wouldn't have to try to hard to have something like that play out.
Anhilliator1: Yeah...Tabane definitely has a warped sense of reality and I think that shows. It will be fun to see it play out. Also...I think you are misremembering AC4A a little bit. Strayed fights by White Glint's side in defense of Line Ark in that mission, and given that I did just state that they are his stepfather, that what happened here. Thermidor killed Anatolia's Mercenary, and even though Strayed knows, their world is so different from our own that they don't really mind all that much.
To RedRat8: No, you are correct, and someone less appreciative of that also pointed that out recently. The meta reason is that I am exceptionally lazy and didn't care to expand upon her character in a realistic way. The in-story excuse that I have is that it was an unusual event and she didn't actually see them die, she's just being told that they did. Sort of like a pilot of a bomber not seeing the destruction of their bombs. This is another fault of mine, but if I had taken the time to expand upon this world like I should have, then it would be clear that Tabane was making memes trying to dehumanize ORCA and create a sense "otherness" to them that makes them less relatable and more suspicious, such that people would be quicker to look down on them. You can sort of see the remnants of that line of thinking when Tabane went to see ISIS and called the ORCA people "Orcs" or when Houki calls them weird two chapters ago. I should have done better, but I've been very distracted with the release of AC6 and writing UDL on the side.
To ak4567: Yeah, she was sponsoring acts of terror in her own canonical timeline, so here she is just more open about it.
To Guest DCDGojira: They certainly did. Thanks for liking it!
To Swinburne: *shrugs menacingly*
To ALLMIND: The idea of ALLMIND getting her grubby little robot hands on Strayed's combat data is a little terrifying. It would be a very interesting invention of hers.
To Zero: Yeah that's the implication. I write weird like that.
To Xs0nicblAdeX: So far only ISIS and NK have declared war on ORCA, and not to their benefit. The rest of the world doesn't much care for those two, so having them gone could be seen as a boon. As for spying on Big Box, that's easier said and done. I said in this chapter that NK did try to infiltrate Big Box, but it was so big their soldiers got lost and died.
To Cobalt Conrad: I'm not really a ship person. Though if a pairing makes sense of can be useful in some plot sense, I might do it. James/Chifuyu is strange in that it happened under very extraneous circumstances, but at the same time there are very few people in either Big Box or the Academy who would be of interest to him, and writing them into a strange encounter that they both might not hate is something I would do. That being said, Chifuyu definitely likes James a lot more than he likes her, and that might lead to some problems.
To Guest: You should have, and you deserved to see as much, but I was simply too lazy and too rushed to include it. The global opinion of ORCA is currently on the rise, but that might not last for too long.
Edit/To WitnessofFate: Hey, sorry I forgot you but you commented on the previous chapter and I an hoping you checked your DMs. If for some reason you are still reading this and have not checked your DMs, here is my advice. Stop reading this story. I openly admit from chapter 1 that this story is not a representation of my best work. There are certain and obvious holes and, as you pointed out, mischaracterizations. You come across to me as a fan of Infinite Stratos, so let me be very clear when I say that I don't think you're going to like what happens in this story, and for both our sakes you should stop reading it. I did not write this story out of a genuine interest in Infinite Stratos, I wrote it with a cruel sense of curious brutality brought about by a guest request that prompted an idea I wanted to share.
So let me be clear. Continue reading at your own peril. If you didn't like how I handled Houki, you won't like what comes next.