Chapter 11 Rising Tensions

August 2nd, Friday / IS Academy

The knock at his door was a welcome distraction from the antics of May and Tatenashi.

"Kanzashi?" James questioned as he stepped out of his room.

"Oh…um…here." Kanzashi handed him a paper bag. Opening it revealed a strangely colorful box with the image of an armored man on the front. Inside the box was a DVD disk.

"…?" James stared at the box in confusion.

"It's uh…anime. I hope you will enjoy it." Kanzahsi informed him.

"Ah…" James nodded. "We don't have this back home."

"Oh, that's unfortunate…" Kanzashi frowned. "Well, now you'll have the chance to enjoy it too."

"I'll look into it." James acquiesced.

"Great. That's great." Kanzashi smiled meekly, her hands clutching each other. "Ah…James…?"

"…Yeah." James knew where this was going.

"The thing is I like…like…like it very much!" Kanzashi ran off embarrassed.

"…" Well that sort of worked itself out. James sighed, and began to put the box back into the bag.

"Hold up." Not Judith voiced her concern, much to the annoyance of James. "Look at that box again."

"…" James decided to do what the ghost suggested, and looked down at the so called anime. The cover was titled 'Power Man' and showed an image of a fully armored man in a bright red costume. "What is it?"

"Next clue in the case." Not Judith announced. "Yours's I mean. This doesn't help me at all. But I think this is important."

"…" James snorted, not sure what the ghost was on about now.

Next Day

"So there are these gutter punks, right? Turns out they'd spliced a line into the hydroponics feeding the grass outside the governor's office. Made a nice little brown smudge. Anyway the governor's like 'These punks are a dire threat to the stability of the ecosystem of Ceres', and he goes on and on like they're gonna suck all the water out of the fuckin air too. So me and my partner, the rookie, we get up in a mech shaft looking for their line with a guy who's wearing anti-establishment tats on his neck. I ask 'does your boss let you wear your colors like that?' and he says 'boss has one just like it.' But he's a good guy, it's not time for a revolution today, so he finds the line and points us in the direction of a condenser grid where the gutter punks are set up, but not before he eats a shroom off the wall. So we get down there and, of course, these are the 'very dangerous eco terrorists' stealing gray water from the grass, so we get a surveillance drone and half a tac team to take down what amounts to six teenagers with a water barrel. They don't have a toothpick between them. We roll up on them, and, of course, they run. One idiot tries hiding behind the barrel, so while the tac team goes running after his friends, me and my partner corner this kid. Punk knocks the barrel on me, so now I'm covered in gray water, and let me tell you, you let that shit sit for a while, the shit starts to accumulate. My partner pats down the kid, and, since this kid's looking at six months to a year on a prison barge, he starts hitting his head against the wall, like we're going to get off beatin his dumb ass. So, I zip him up, turn him around, and tell him like it is. He's suppose to siphon a little water here and there, not screw his goose and fill a whole barrel at once. He can pick all the pockets he wants, rob all the drunks, and we won't bat an eye. But once you mess with the water, we're going to nail your ass. He's still acting all tough though, cause some cops giving him hood lessons, so, I remind him. Couple of years on the float, in a cubical so small you can't even bend over to wipe your own ass, that's the sentence he's looking at. Then I pull a knife on the kid, and my partner, he's also an idiot, he thinks I'm going to stab this kid. Nah, I cut him loose, and then I yell at him as he's running away, 'stay away from the owkwa!'"

"…" This was just one of the many stories Not Judith would recall from a life she had not lived. James blinked as it seemingly came to an end.

"Talk about a tough crowd." Not Judith smirked, knowing she was essentially talking to herself while in his head. "What is it you're doing again today?"

"…"

"I don't know why you're so down. You got that smoken' babe Chifuyu, your dangerous partner May, that little minx Tatenashi, and that adorable Kanzashi all clamoring for attention. Well, two of the four, though May and Tatenashi seem open enough to sharing with you. You got almost as many options as that Ichika fellow-"

"Do not compare me to that goody-two-shoes limp-dick idiot." James frowned.

"Ah fair enough." Not Judith relented. "You've got a kill count measured in a sizable percentage of the human population, and just about wiped out anything that could be called a Lynx. I doubt Ichika will do anything even half as impressive in his lifetime."

"…He doesn't have that long."

"…" For once, Not Judith was left speechless, grimacing with terrible realization. "Ah…fuck…I don't even have a body and you got me feeling sick. You must be great at parties. Still, what are you doing today? I'm not always paying attention to you, I've got other roots to look into from time to time."

"…May said something about a 'double-date'. I'm not particularly thrilled about it but I do have to keep an eye on her. Additionally, doing that will keep me from having to speak to you."

"Heh. Dick." Not Judith laughed.

James wandered until he found himself at the local mall, off the island the Academy was on. Since it was a Saturday, there were several other students from the Academy there. May had said to meet him here in a few minutes. Out in the crowd, he would occasionally catch sight of Not Judith, watching him, reminding him that she was still there, lurking around his mind.

Two of the Academy students, a short, second year, dark blue haired Greek girl; and a taller, blonde haired American girl in the third year, passed him by, somewhat closer than usual. The smaller girl tried to trip herself into him, to which James side-stepped her, allowing her to fall past him. Then the girl screamed, clutching her chest.

"P-Pervert!" The smaller girl screamed.

"…?"

"You son of a bitch! Did you just grope my girlfriend!?" The taller girl accused.

"…?" Running their faces through his memory, their files came up. Forte Sapphire was the shorter girl, and Daryl Casey was the taller girl.

"What? You think it's cool to touch little girls? Do you?!" Daryl pointed at him, yelling loudly enough that she was drawing a crowd.

"…?" James was used to being ambushed. To be shot at or stabbed or beaten. This was outside of his experience. He could only stare in confusion. Even Not Judith made a show of walking herself backwards at the edge of his vision, as though she was equally confused.

Daryl's accusation had stirred some response in the crowd, as they whispered to each other.

"That pervert just groped that poor girl!"

"Someone should report him to the authorities!"

"Is he wearing an ORCA coat? Those otherworlders behave so uncivilized!"

"James you bastard!" Houki had been nearby and had been quick to side with the crowd. "You've really done it now you idiot!"

"I ought to punch your lights out for that!" Daryl threatened. "But…I'm in a particularly forgiving mood today. Get on your hands and knees and beg for forgiveness and maybe I'll forgive you!"

"…" Debasing himself for a crime he did not commit was not something he was going to do. Besides, he wasn't afraid of a fight. He wouldn't back down.

"Come on James, I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding." Ichika was there too, hanging out with Houki today. "Just do what she says and suffer a bit of shame. It's not worth it to fight over."

"…" Maybe it was a fault of theirs, but Lynx had overwhelming pride. Pride of their station and pride of their title. Even if it ruined his reputation, he would have no regrets beating this loud-mouthed girl down, painting the floors with her face.

"Okay, you asked for it!" Daryl summoned one of her personal IS arms, the large claw curled into a fist. She reared it back to throw at his face-

"Well hello!" Tatenashi came screaming cheerfully out of nowhere, using her fan to redirect Daryl's attack past James's face. "What's going on here?"

"M-Miss Sarashiki!" Forte stuttered in surprise. "James here groped me! Daryl was just defending me!"

"Hmm?" Tatenashi frowned, immediately confused. Quick witted as she was though, she had an answer to this situation. "Why James! If you wanted to touch a girl, you could aways just touch me!"

Tatenashi grabbed one of his hands and placed it over one of her breasts. James frowned, and took his hand back with a quick flick.

"Now, you saw that right?" Tatenashi grinned widely with overwhelming confidence. "Even when I'm begging him to touch me! Undressing and throwing myself all over him! James simply isn't even bothered to satisfy me for a single second! So…" She groped herself, making her size openly known. "If he won't even touch my ample set, what makes you think he would be bothered to touch your little bug-bites?"

"Ah! That's-! I mean-!" Forte struggled to come up with an answer, getting embarrassed and angry simultaneously.

"…Must have been a mistake then." Daryl muttered. "Come on Forte." She gathered up her girlfriend.

"Hey now!" Tatenashi called them. "I do believe you owe James an apology for accusing him so publicly! I mean, that's only fair, right?"

"R-Right, Miss Sarashiki." Daryl sneered, hiding her face. Standing beside Forte, they each bowed reluctantly and stiffly. "Please forgive us."

"…" James sighed. He turned to give Ichika and Houki a pointed look of disapproval. The whole crowd dispersed then, leaving just Tatenashi and James.

"…Thanks." James reluctantly admitted.

"It's no problem. Still, what was that about?" Tatenashi questioned him. "I trust that you didn't do what they said, but have you interacted with them before? Perhaps you offended them in some way at a previous event?"

"No idea."

"Hmm…well, best to not dwell on it. Come on, May and my sister are waiting!" Tatenashi skipped off.

"…"

"You know what was the strangest thing about that?" Not Judith spoke up. "They called you James."

"…I'm the only other guy in the school. It's doubtful I'm that unknown." James reasoned.

"Maybe. But this is still Japan. People who aren't in your friend group are referred to by their last name. They should have called you Klein instead." Not Judith pointed out.

"…" James hummed in thought, knowing that she was right, but not what it meant.

At a certain point it became evident that May and Tatenashi just wanted to experiment with a new kink of some kind. It would have been simple for him to just walk away and leave Kanzashi in a store she liked.

But between the meek and mopey Kanzashi and the unhinged and incomprehensible Not Judith, James supposed he would pick spending time with the living girl.

The girl was pretty easy to please, considering she was a loner who didn't have any friends. Just hiding in his shadow brought her a bit too much enjoyment, as she smiled shyly.

"Umm, where are we going?" Kanzashi squeaked quietly.

"Just…enjoying a walk is all." James mused. There was a stretch of the mall that overlooked the ocean, and James took the opportunity to use it to remind himself of his second home. Line Ark.

"I usually don't get out as much." Kanzashi admitted. "I usually prefer just watching anime or playing games. What was your home like?"

"…" James hummed, turning to face her with a calm smile. He breathed through his nose loudly, once, twice, three times. "And that's all it would take."

"'All it would take' for what?" Kanzashi asked in confusion.

"To kill you on my world."

"…" Kanzashi stopped, surprised and confused.

"The air was extremely radioactive. If you were outside and took as few as three breaths, you were already dead." James explained. "It has been…a very long time since I've been outside. You take it for granted."

"Yeah…I suppose we do." Kanzashi agreed shamefully. "Is that why ORCA has been so aggressive in their planetary cleaning projects? The carbon capture, the garbage disposal, and the fusion reactors?"

"Yes." James nodded. "We don't want to see your world become like ours."

"That's nice." Kanzashi smiled sweetly. "A lot of people fear you guys from another world, but you really mean well."

"We've seen what humanity can do at it's worse. We would like to try to be better."

Secret Base – Phantom Task

"Here is the mission we have been given." Squall announced to the other high ranking members of Phantom Task. "We'll be infiltrating the Academy, with the objective of capturing as many custom IS suits as possible, and killing as many ORCA personnel as we can."

"Excellent." Autumn purred sinisterly.

"So we will officially be declaring war on ORCA?" Madoka noted.

"It is the will of our benefactor." Squall declared. "And while ORCA has obscene strength, it is doubtful they can leverage that strength against small, evasive targets such as ourselves."

"How are we getting in?" Autumn wondered.

"We have something of a…backdoor." Squall informed. "Additionally, you'll have some back up. An entire battalion of North Korean soldiers."

"I thought the North Korean's had lost their entire military?" Madoka questioned.

"They did. These are soldiers and spies who had been out of the country on various diplomatic or espionage missions. Our benefactor contacted them with the promise of revenge. Their mission is purely to run interference and engage the ORCA marine battalion on site."

"I see. What of our orders regarding ORCA personnel?" Another of Phantom Task's high level members, an Italian woman named Alicia Jiosestaf, questioned.

"For the ORCA Marines, we can ignore them, but you should not hesitate to kill them if they get in your way. As for the Lynx, we are to capture them if possible, but do not shy away in killing them either. Our benefactor has declared them enemies of mankind. We're doing the world a service killing them." Squall smiled sinisterly.

IS Academy / Monday, August 5th – 0100 Hours

As much as he despised being alone with the ghost, it had offered to help him research something. So he'd dragged her down to a computer lab and demanded it of her.

"So, you want my help looking into something?" Not Judith smiled.

"Yeah…" James reluctantly sneered. "For the longest time now, we've been trying to ascertain the motivations of Tabane Shinonono and her creation of the Infinite Stratos. While we can guess certain aspects, the overall design is questionable and beyond our understanding."

"Hmm, yeah. That. I do have a working theory about that, but I'll need your help researching it." Not Judith requested. "My own search range won't let me look for anything that specific."

"Alright." James readied himself to look for whatever the ghost suggested.

"Search for: magic girl anime."

"…" James turned slowly and stared at the ghost in abject confusion and seething hatred.

"What? You think I'm joking?" Not Judith leaned over him, pointing at the screen in front of him. "Type it out, trust me."

"…" With no other leads, James typed out the request, finding several shows and examples. Absolutely nothing about this seemed relevant to his request, until the ghost prompted him to view a video from one of the anime.

In it, the main character of one of the shows took her magic wand, did whatever incantation was necessary, and in a flash of light and change of camera angle that strangely focused on her semi-censored genitalia, was redressed into the magic girl outfit. The entire event was strangely similar to the videos of the deployment of an Infinite Stratos that ORCA had on file.

"…Huh." James hummed.

"Yeah, you're seeing it now, aren't you?" Not Judith mocked him a little. "My theory is it's got nothing to do with anything actually practical or military. Instead it's something a little more…asinine. Okay, now look up that anime Kanzashi gave you."

Looking up information on the "Power Man" show Kanzashi wanted him to see, the main character, a very plain looking male, would strike a dramatic pose before entering battle…just like Ichika was prone to do.

"Okay, this is getting weird." James frowned. "Why do all these different anime have such glaring similarities to the Infinite Stratos?"

"I'm betting it's by design." Not Judith declared. "That Shinonono woman has a strange preference for style and fare over function. Now, search for something along the lines of 'team action anime.'"

James got about halfway through typing that out before he stopped, licking his lips apprehensively.

"…You uh, you got a problem there?"

"Yeah." James sighed. "My precognition is being triggered. There's about to be a whole lot of death in this school."

"Ah. How certain are you?" Not Judith wondered.

"Certain enough to put all of ORCA into high alert."

There was a half expectation that getting a call from James at god-awful in the morning would be for something a little more obscene…until she remembered that this was James and he almost never liked doing anything.

"This had better be important." Chifuyu growled, head still on her pillow as she answered the phone.

"A lot of people are going to die in the school in a couple of minutes."

"…Okay, I'm listening." Chifuyu sat up, confused, horrified, but still calm and collected.

"All you need to know is that I am certain of this. Certain enough that I've already alerted ORCA and they are on high alert. May and Tatenashi are quietly waking up the students."

"What is the threat?"

"Unknown. I am searching for it though. Be ready for anything." James ended the call.

"…Fuck." Chifuyu rubbed her head, then sprang into action.

"So help me understand this." Not Judith wondered beside him, being as loud as she wanted since she was only in his head. "How exactly does that work?"

"…" James sighed, as he worked his way through the underground corridors of the school, feeling drawn to the stench of corpses that had yet to hit the floor. "I can pretty well tell when people are about to die. The more people, the longer in advance. No, I can't calculate exactly when or where, but I can sometimes guess who when they are close enough."

"Huh. That must be pretty useful for someone in your profession." Not Judith noted.

"It is. I hate it."

"…Why?"

"…" James stopped, and took a deep breath. "Imagine knowing when your allies…friends, and family are going to die, but no matter how hard you fight against it, you can't stop it."

"…" Not Judith nodded, and for once decided to shut up.

A few minutes later, James came upon a sight he wasn't exactly sure what to make of.

Those two girls who had tried to accuse him the other day, Forte Sapphire and Daryl Casey, where standing near a contraption that looked like a high-tech doorway. They had just finished hooking up some high voltage power feeds to the device.

The feeling he was getting, was that someone in this room was going to die in a few minutes. With that knowledge, he strode forward, and got their attention.

"…Shit." Daryl cursed. "It just had to be you, huh?"

"…"

"This wasn't part of the plan. We'll have to move forward quickly." Forte added.

"Yeah. Hit it." Daryl ordered.

Forte activated the device, with caused the strange doorway to glow with light. A few seconds later, Madoka and Autumn stepped through the door of light.

"You're early." Madoka spat.

"We were discovered, we had no choice." Daryl explained.

"It's no mind. After all, it's just one man, I'll make this quick." Autumn declared.

"No." Forte demanded. "Leave him to us. We'll be sure to silence him before he can raise the alarm."

"…" James smiled. While the agents of Phantom Task had delayed killing him while they mulled it over, he had already sent the data up the ORCA battle net with four words.

/TARGETS VERIFIED

/COMMENCING HOSTILITIES

The alarms in the school sounded, triggered by an ORCA operator, letting the whole school know that they were under attack.

"Shit!" Madoka shouted as she pulled out a radio. "We've been compromised! Send them now!"

Then man after man started pouring out of the doorway, each armed and ready for a fight.

And all that stood in their way was James, bearing a gleeful smile.

"What the heck is going on!?" Ichika shouted as the alarms started blaring and the ORCA Marine contingent, that was supposed to be defending from outside threats, started pouring their way into the school, making haste toward the underground areas.

"I've already told you, we're under attack!" May chastised him. "Now suit up and stay here. I'm getting reports that the enemy has a direct line inside. They're contained for now but ORCA is going to pressure them back into whatever hole they crawled out of."

"Where's James? I noticed he's not making his way down." Houki sarcastically added.

"He's at the front line. He's currently holding the line alone. He's reporting…" May closed her eyes, taking a moment to read the information being put into the ORCA battle net. "At least four IS units, and hundreds of back up infantry."

"T-Then we need to help him!" Kanzashi shouted.

"I'm going to help him. Anyone else is just going to get in the way." May denied. "You guys can help best by defending the rest of the students. Leave this to ORCA." She then ran off, following the troops into the underground.

"I don't feel right, letting James handle this on his own." Ichika spoke up. "We should try and help them if we can."

"As much as I feel the same…May said that there is going to be lot of death. She doesn't want us anywhere near any of that. That we should just let ORCA deal with it. They are more than happy to fight this battle for us." Tatenashi argued.

"Then we need to go to keep as many people from dying as possible." Ichika declared. "I know that we can save lives."

The other girls, Houki, Cecilia, Rin, Charlotte, Laura, and Kanzashi all agreed, hoping to do their part to protect their school.

"This is a mistake." Tatenashi shook her head. "I'm only going as well because I know I can handle myself. But understand this is a mistake. We will never match ORCA in their efficiency, or their ruthlessness."

There was something terribly thrilling about it, as James decimated those foes before him. Tearing through those men who had sought glory against ORCA, yet finding only death.

It was fairly evident that they had planned to use the site near the portal as an assembly area to plan their invasion of the school. James alone disrupted those plans, using his high-frequency knives to cut them to ribbons where they stood. They only had two options once they entered the room. Stand and die or run and hide.

Unfortunately, there was a reason he was being so aggressive. It had to do with those two girls, Forte and Daryl.

ORCA was still taking into consideration the complex issue that was the Infinite Stratos. Mass production units that lacked special abilities were considered minimal threats, such that a Lynx could overcome them in hand-to hand combat. It was the customized units that required more serious consideration.

For instance, Ichika, Houki, and Kanzashi processed high spec units with more power than standard IS units. Cecilia, Charlotte, and Laura's units processed greater firepower and were therefore more versatile than standard units. On the extreme ends, Rin's unit was considered a minimal-threat to AC's due to it's primary weapon, the Shock Cannons, being unable to damage AC armor; while Tatenashi's unit was so anomalous and versatile that it stood a decent chance in combat against even Armored Core NEXT.

Forte's unit had what could only be described as an elaborate freeze ray, while Daryl was armed with flame throwers and a flaming sword. On their own, James could have easily adjusted his own internal cooling to counter them in one-on-one combat.

Except that they worked together, combining their special abilities in their attacks, one after another. While not immediately fatal, it was wearing him down.

His hand plunged through the chest of one of the enemy soldiers, James shoved him into the way of Forte's attack, causing the man to freeze solid. James squeezed his hand, freeing it from within the man and causing him to fracture into dozens of pieces.

While Forte stopped to grimace at the terrible way that man had died, Daryl sent a wall of flame at him. James raised his arm, his coat taking the flames, but not the heat. The rapid change in temperature in his body was affecting the highly dense nanocarbon grid under his skin to crack, causing his skin to split and spill blood.

He was taking damage much faster than anticipated. He wasn't sure how long he could keep it going.

Coming to an intersection of hallways where soldiers were exchanging fire, Autumn looked down at some of the North Korean soldiers hiding beside the wall.

"What's going on here? Why aren't you engaging the ORCA troops?" She demanded.

"Ma'am. The enemy soldiers were ready for us. They have that hallway locked down tight. What's more, their rifles are cutting through our men. We think they're using large caliber fragmentation ammunition." A Sergeant explained.

"Very well. I'll take care of them." Autumn smiled sinisterly. Using her large spider shaped IS to charge down the ORCA defenders, with her energy shields stopping their bullets harmlessly, she found herself among their lines quickly.

Against an IS, the ORCA defenders were nearly defenseless, easily cut down by her many limbs and many blades. Even so, Autumn was disappointed and frustrated by their quiet concentration. Even those she tore limb from limb making little more than pained moans.

Cutting the right arm off one ORCA Marine, Autumn leered over him hatefully. "Aww, what's wrong? Lose your weapon?" Autumn mocked. "Why don't you beg pathetically for your life, little man?"

"Hmm." The man sneered, smiling widely. "Remember the Cant!"

The one-armed soldier then pulled every pin off the grenades hanging off his chest, and charged at her. Backing up fearfully, Autumn used her palm mounted lasers to fire into the man as many times as she could, trying to slow him down and kill him. Her back against the wall, the grenades on his chest finally went off a few feet from her. While her shields protected her, the man was obliterated, spraying blood and ruined meat all over the place.

"What…? What the fuck!?" Autumn exclaimed. What limited reports they had on ORCA painted them as devoted and skilled, not suicidal and fanatical.

In her distraction, another ORCA squad had charged past her, bayonets on their rifles, and right into the impromptu North Korean lines.

Shouting as they ran into automatic fire, they quickly came face to face with their foes, and took no mercy.

"Remember the Cant!" Was repeated over and over, a war cry that chilled their enemy and spelled out their fate. Even when many fell, they did not care, and only charged forward, seeking more blood to spill.

Autumn wasn't able to continue observing their charge as another squad had been tasked against her, firing their rifles as they approached. They had to know, that doing so was certain death, yet even so they did it anyway. She hadn't realized they had a terrible, effective plan.

Cutting down another squad of ORCA troops, the last one came at her with no weapon in hand. That should have been her first clue. Using a blade to stab him through the heart, the man was certainly killed, but with his last ounce of strength, held onto her bladed leg, looked up at her, and smiled with a sinister certainty.

"Remember the Cant." The man croaked, before he pushed a button and exploded.

The first time that had happened had seemed like a fluke, the terrible drive of one madman hoping to take an enemy with him. This time, the man had definitely been a designated suicide bomber.

Although the leg she had stabbed him with had been destroyed, her energy shields still protected her, but had been considerably drained. Scowling in fear and anger, Autumn made the sane choice and backed off, refusing to let any potential ORCA suicide bomber into close range again.

The first time Madoka had been beaten by an unarmored person, she had accepted it. It was Tabane Shinonono after all.

The second time was a bit harder to understand.

"I've got no beef with ORCA. Stand aside." She tried to demand.

"No can do." May Greenfield stood in her way, armed with nothing but her closed fists. "Since ORCA's taken the security contract for the school, that means it's my job to stop you from…doing whatever it is you guys do."

"What do you think you're going to do?" Madoka mocked. "You don't even have an IS?"

"Eh…this?" May shrugged, than ran at Madoka, faster than she could respond. Unable to bring her laser cannon around in time, Madoka suddenly found May right in front of her, under her shields, and with a gun pointed right at her head.

She saved herself by jerking her head back, then flinging May away hard enough that the green haired girl left a sizeable dent in the wall. Even when she brought up her laser cannon and fired at her, the bolts did little to deter May, who just dislodged herself from the wall, then kept coming at her, eager for a fight.

"What…? How are you still alive? You just took hits from a heavy laser weapon?" Madoka stared apprehensively.

"Trade secret." May smiled, her skin burned but not unbearably so. "Now come here, so that I might take your life."

"Well…I suppose they don't call it 'Big Box' for nothin." Tabane mused to herself.

While Phantom Task was busy attacking the Academy with the Last Battalion of North Korean soldiers, she'd thought she'd use the opportunity to teleport into the ORCA stronghold and have a look around.

Using an invisibility metamaterial cloak, she traveled further down into the megafortress. Watching the traffic of their security forces within the base, deciding to teleport into their most heavily defended area.

It looked to be an ordnance storage magazine, not far from the hangar section. The most heavily guarded doors appearing to bare two different variants of a nuclear symbol. One of which appeared with a dot orbiting another larger dot and was colored blue, which she pretty well guessed was their fusion nuclear weapons, the dots being indictive of hydrogen.

The other symbol was more of a mystery. It appeared as a nuclear warning symbol with the letter "K" splitting from the center in three directions, and was colored green. It was by far the most heavily guarded section of the fortress, so she teleported behind the doors.

Inside, were a few thousand warheads, each of which was marked with the green nuclear symbol. Deciding to scan one of the bombs, it revealed an unknown energy signature, some kind of particle of physics she had never imagined to exist.

"Ohh…what sweet, sweet secret is this, ORCA?" Tabane wondered out loud. With a confident smirk, she grabbed one of the warheads and dropped it into a pocket dimension for later study.

With that done with, she teleported deeper into the facility, far below the military districts and into the civilian and manufacturing districts, seeing the ample mega industry churning out the product of an entire nation, doing so within the confines of their fortress. It was, she would reluctantly admit, impressive.

Looking at their food industry, they were all working especially hard there, trying to build up massive vertical farms within the confines of the fortress. She didn't notice any meat however…

In fact, there was an older looking, unused factory. Teleporting into that, it appeared to be a slaughterhouse of some kind, with hooks and saws and everything. It was particularly expansive though, with it's later components appearing designed to break flesh down into individual elements. Why go through such effort for meat? Towards the front of the assembly line, the shape and form of the slaughterhouse hooks appeared to be designed for…

Oh…

Oh!

Tabane smiled widely, making sure to take plenty of pictures of this long unused slaughterhouse. This was by far the best thing about ORCA she had yet discovered! With that information stored away, she teleported home, and began experimenting with the stolen warhead.

IS Academy – Basement Level

Getting knocked through a wall, there was an unfortunate truth he had to contend with.

He was losing.

"What the hell are you doing kid?" Not Judith chastised him. "You're no good to me dead."

"Well…why don't you do something then?" James hissed at the ghost. His arms and legs were cracked and bleeding, the constant and rapid changes in heat slowly tearing his skin apart, leaving it to slough off his bones in fleshy chunks.

"I'm just a program running around in your head. I don't have any control. Plus I can't even talk to you like an Operator."

"Then please shut the fuck up." James begged.

"Hmm…maybe if I see something I'll point it out. Keep your eyes open kid." Not Judith offered.

"…" Grimacing, James got up and faced off against Forte and Daryl.

"Wow. ORCA's great and scary James Klein." Daryl mocked. "This will be much easier than I thought."

"Maybe if you beg pathetically, we'll spare your life. We really don't much care for ORCA, but you're in our way." Forte offered.

"…" Between the two girls, Daryl was the better fighter, but Forte had the more dangerous abilities. He could survive being on fire, but the near absolute zero attacks from Forte were doing terrible damage to his skin. He'd have to kill her first.

Before he could charge her down, he noticed Not Judith, standing far down the hallway, and pointing at a sign. The sign she pointed at was labeled "Server Room."

"…" Smiling, he suddenly had a plan, but in order for it to work, he needed the enemy to follow him. By their own admission, he wasn't their main target, and wanted to be sure they'd follow. He wasn't used to psyops warfare, but he knew enough to make it work. "Makes sense you would get with a girl. Who'd want a flat chested, resting bitch face like you?"

"You! I'll kill you for that!" Forte threatened.

"But you've got to catch me first little whiney bitch!" James mocked uncharacteristically. In this situation, it was adapt or die, and he needed to change tactics to win.

Getting a good head start on the two girls, James made his way quickly to the server room, making a show of slowing down, as though he was tired and injured beyond what he actually felt. Looking over his shoulder, he faked his haste, and breathed louder than necessary. Slowly, he opened the door to the server room, found what he needed, and made a show of dramatically slumping down tiredly near it.

"Running and hiding like a little bitch I see. How the mighty have fallen." Daryl mocked from behind, taking the lead.

"The great James Klein, nothing but a cowardly and weak man." Forte added. "Are you ready to beg like a dog?"

"Dog? Dog? Ha!" James smiled. "It's funny you say that. The League always called me their groveling dog. Not for any kind of desperate begging though…" James reached up and pulled the fire alarm in the server room.

An alarm blared as carbon dioxide rapidly replaced the oxygen in the room. Forte and Daryl covered their mouths as they tried to hold their breath, as James rose to his feet, his own internal air supply able to keep him going for several minutes.

"They called me a dog for my willingness to do the most terrible of work." James answered, then rushed forward to attack, renewed with hope and certainty.

Her flame-based weaponry suddenly useless in an oxygen-less environment, Daryl wasn't able to effectively defend herself as James closed in and punched her in the gut, getting her to expel what little air she had saved. She started choking, falling to the side and out of his way.

Without her protector, Forte was helpless, throwing blind, random freezing attacks at James. With his internal cooling temporarily disabled, his own body heat kept him going long enough to endure her attacks, and close into point blank range. Her ice attacks had damaged his weapons, jamming his guns and dulling his blades, and her IS was large enough that if he didn't use both hands to hold her arms at bay, she could easily hold him back. Which left him with only one weapon left to use.

Opening his maw wide, James lunged forward, and sunk his teeth deep into Forte's throat. Closed tight, he pulled back, and ripped it out entirety, staining his face in her fresh, spurting blood.

Humans tasted terrible, and he never liked to kill this way, but neither did he shy away from doing so when he found it necessary. Spitting her throat out, he leaned back in, tearing more of her neck apart with his teeth. In her panic and horror, Forte deactivated her IS, trying to push him away, like she had any chance of survival left. His hands instinctually wrapping around her, he traced his hands up her back, grabbed her by the neck, and crushed it swiftly, finally killing her.

In hindsight, holding a dead girl in his arms with her throat torn out and his own face covered in their blood might be interpreted poorly.

The door to the server room was broken down, and Ichika stepped in, and was not particularly pleased to find James holding a human happy meal.

"JAMES!"

"…?" James sighed, seeing where this was probably going. He dropped the dead girl and brought his fists up. Ichika, with his IS deployed, rushed into the room, and started trying to punch him to death with his clawed fists.

"You bastard! I'll kill you! I'll kill you you hear! I'll-*cough*" Ichika started choking, the air still empty of oxygen, and James caught him by the throat with one hand.

"…" James growled, frustrated, but currently not allowed to really hurt Ichika. Holding him up by the throat, James dragged him out of the room, throwing him out into the hallway.

"Ichika!" Houki had shouted, helping him up.

James turned around to go finish off Daryl when Cecilia blocked him.

"What did you do to our dear Ichika?!" Cecilia accused. "Why are you covered in blood?"

"…" James growled, baring his teeth, and shoved his way past her.

"*cough* Stop him!" Ichika shouted. "James killed a girl!"

"…What of it?" James retorted, not particularly interested in fighting Ichika's whole harem with half his skin missing. If he could buy some time while they argued, hopefully he might get his own reinforcements.

"'What of it'? What the hell is wrong with you?! We don't kill people!" Rin yelled at him.

"Well I do. I'm a soldier and a mercenary." James reasoned. "It's what I do."

"You don't have to be a soldier anymore." Laura argued. "You could be more. I am now. You can too."

"No. Not the kind of mercenary that I am. There will always be need for butchers like me." James pointed at himself.

"Sir!" A squad of ORCA Marines quickly entered the hallway, and took position by his side. Reading the situation as hostile, they deferred to their superior. "Orders, sir?"

"There is an enemy in the server room. Execute her." James ordered.

"The hell you will!" Ichika shouted. "Charlotte! Go save her!"

"Right!" Charlotte used her IS to fly into the server room while several other girls blocked James and the ORCA Marines.

Then Autumn and Madoka backed into the hallway, having been pursued by May, Tatenashi, and Kanzashi.

"O…Kay." May muttered. "I see things are going well."

Charlotte came out of the server room, half carrying Daryl over her shoulder. The girl coughed heavily, her lungs finding sweet, fresh air.

"Forte...? Forte? Where's…?" She looked back into the room, seeing where James had dropped her. "…You bastard! I'll kill you!"

"It's no good. We have to retreat. Autumn, Rain, lets go." Madoka declared, calling Daryl by her real name. "We've done enough."

"You'll have to get your revenge some other time." Autumn spat. "But trust me, we will."

"Dammit!" Daryl, who's real name was Rain, pushed herself away from Charlotte, and together with Autumn and Madoka, flew through the portal, the devise turning off behind them.

Even with the enemy soldiers defeated, Ichika and his girls refused to back down, standing against James and the ORCA Marines.

"Okay guys…what's going on?" Tatenashi questioned.

"James killed a girl! He tore her apart! He ate her!" Ichika accused.

"J-James…? Is that…?" Kanzashi fearfuly questioned.

"I don't need to explain my actions to any of you. But for your information, I was losing, so I had to improvise to survive." James explained briefly.

"Oh sure the great James Klein was losing a battle against a young girl and conveniently tore her throat out with his teeth!" Houki yelled.

"James is brutal and savage. But he's not a liar. He only used as much force as was necessary. Besides, he looks a bit more fucked up than usual. James?" May defended, asking a question at the same time.

"…Twenty eight percent combat efficiency." James admitted.

"There, you see? He won't and can't lie about that." May continued.

"I don't know what you guys expected." Tatenashi added. "This whole time we've been warned about how brutal ORCA, and especially James is. Frankly I'm surprised he lasted this long without killing someone."

"You've probably been sleeping with him! You're in no position to talk!" Houki shouted at her. "And you have been sleeping with May!"

"Ha, I wish." Tatenashi admitted. "And my relationship with May only makes me more knowledgeable about their particular mannerisms. Am I happy with what he did? No, I'm disgusted. But I'm not surprised."

"H-He is rather blunt." Kanzashi added, unsure but wanting to trust her sister and James.

"There is no reason to have to kill!" Ichika yelled. "If he was losing, he should have run away or gotten help! We would have helped him win so he wouldn't have to kill an innocent girl!"

"Innocent!? She was the enemy! She helped open that portal thing that let soldiers into the Academy!" James argued back. "I will not hesitate to kill an enemy."

"We lost a lot of good men and women holding back those guys." One of the ORCA Marines hissed. "A little appreciation for our Lynx and their tenacity in holding back the tide."

"We didn't need your help!" Houki yelled back. "We don't want your help! We could have dealt with this on our own! Without any loss of life!"

"How naive are you going to be, Ms. Shinonono?" Chifuyu slowly strode down the hall, getting in between the line her students seemed to draw with the ORCA operatives.

"Sis! We-!"

"Shut up Ichika." Chifuyu spat her brother's name in a rare moment of controlled rage. "Am I happy with the actions of James and ORCA? No. They are certainly unforgiveable. But if you think you can wear that armor and never have to make the terrible decision of taking another life, then you should quit while you are ahead. Make no mistake, those North Korean soldiers came here looking for blood, and they had no intention of being taken alive. ORCA sacrificed their men and women to ensure you did not have to deal with that yourself. Now go on. Get out of here, and get back to bed. No classes today, just rest up."

"Y-Yes Orimura sensei." Ichika backed down, and together with the five girls closest to him, left the hallway back to their dorms.

"You too, Sarashiki. No messing with May or James. They have a lot of work ahead, I think."

"Oh…right." Tatenahsi looked down, reluctantly leaving May's side.

"Uh, yes ma'am." Kanzashi nervously nodded.

"…" Chifuyu sighed. While she had been the most rational person in that discussion, that did not mean she held her own reservations. Looking to the ORCA Marines, she said very honestly, "Thank you, for protecting the school, but I do have to ask, what the fuck? I didn't know ORCA employed suicide bombers?"

"No comment, ma'am." The highest-ranking soldier in the room uttered quickly.

"Speak your mind, Sergeant Nanami." James ordered. "Be honest."

"Sir!" The ORCA Sergeant took off her helmet, revealing a surprisingly young Japanese girl with cold, grey eyes. "Our conflict with the ruthless and unforgiving League instilled a sense of…nihilistic fanaticism in the hearts of our soldiers. Officially, ORCA has never employed suicide bombers. That being said, if it takes our lives to kill, or not that, at least slow down a vastly superior enemy, then we gladly give our lives for a worthy cause. It is never asked of us, but when we see no other option before us, we'll take death over dishonor."

"I'm sorry, that your war led you to such a decision." Chifuyu wasn't sure what else to say, so left it at that. She looked to James, in his fucked up and bloodied state. "I'm not particularly pleased with you, but I do understand. Those two worked together particularly well, it would have been difficult to overcome for anyone. Clean up and get the hell out of here. I'm sure you have a report to make."

"Yes ma'am." James nodded.

Big Box / 6 Hours Later

"A fucking portal?" Thermidor cursed.

"Yes sir. It appears to link up to a similar device at a separate location to create what the techs are calling a 'stable wormhole'. The two enemy agents must have been smuggling the components into the Academy for months before we took over the security contract." The onsite ORCA commander reported to his leader.

"I see. Continue as you are, and we'll have reinforcements to you shortly." Thermidor responded. "Good work today. You have all done ORCA proud."

"Yes sir!" The commander saluted, and the line was cut.

"Casualties?" Wolcott questioned.

"Within expectations." Malzel counted. "Two hundred twenty-eight killed, fifty-six wounded. For the enemy, we don't have an exact count as we are still reassembling them, but it appears to have been battalion strength. As well as one confirmed kill against a Phantom Task Agent."

"Yes, and a job well done to our most savage Lynx." Fanchon praised. "It is surprising that you sustained as much damage as you did, however. Your report stated that the enemy units had complementary special abilities that made them difficult to overcome?"

"Yes." Klein answered. "The rapid fluctuations between near absolute zero and over a thousand centigrade degraded the structural integrity of my outer layers. I'll require two to three weeks to completely heal."

"What about you, Greenfield? What was your tactical assessment of the enemy you faced?" Fiona questioned.

"Capable, but inherently arrogant." Greenfield summarized. "The enemy's belief in their own natural supremacy left them surprised to be fighting a capable and dangerous enemy. As well, fighting an IS unit in the confines of a hallway is much more manageable than fighting them out in the open, where they can better utilize their agility to evade and attack from a distance."

"What interest me most is how brazen this attack was." Thermidor noted. "I think we can officially declare that we are in a state of war against Phantom Task."

"Yes. However, I do have some bad news to report." Haze spoke up, a terrible grimace in her expression. "Some of our men noticed a visual anomaly near the munition magazines. We've done a quick inventory, and…we have a problem. A two-kiloton Kojima nuclear weapon is missing."

"That is…distressing." Thermidor frowned.

Author's Note: This took longer than I would have liked to come out because I was stuck for a while rewriting chapter 16 of this story, but I am happy to report that that chapter is now something I can be proud of. It went from a measly 3K words to a standard 10K words after a month or two of work. It did not help that I was easily distracted by writing UDL...

Speaking of Under Dead Light...it's out now. I couldn't help myself. I enjoy writing that story too much. I like it so much, I am planning to release it's 6th chapter within the next 12-24 hours of releasing this chapter, just cause I accidently wrote 5K words of chapter 12 in one night and finished it. So now I am driving myself crazy by finishing this story and while working on that story. Wooooo!

As for this chapter, this is just a glimpse of things to come. Things are going to get much worse. Stay tuned!

To zacker1590: Maybe some, but probably not. What I got is what I got.

To Napster: I'm probably going to have to include some "Kojima filter BS devise" to keep that exact thing from happening, just so I don't have to deal with it. Because you are right, AC NEXT will melt their environment with radiation alone.

As far as Klein, he's as straightforward as they come. Still, he isn't immune to stress, especially under irregular circumstances. And yes, we will be approaching Maxor-levels of insanity. Stay tuned for that!

To Guest DCDGojira: A bullet? That would be too quick! And ah, thank you, hope you liked this too!

To Guest (who requested this damn story): ACK! UGH! Now go check out my new story and let me know what you think.

Azalius: THANK YOU! This is exactly the interpretation I want people approaching this story as. A weird idea thrown together hastily but expanded upon to the point it's 100K+ words long (I actually don't know how long this story will be. Definitely 100K at least though). I have failed in regards to most of the IS characters responses and personalities, though I don't mind them too much since Tabane is the main IS character and I definitely got her perfect.

James is a lot of things, including a monster, but there is a method and purpose to his madness, as we'll see in later chapters, and that's an important distinction.

As far as Under Dead Light...I've started releasing it! Eh...I think what happened was I was too demoralized with rewriting chapter 16 and wanted the emotional boost, plus the fact that I've been writing chapters for it rather quickly, so I was excited to share it too. In comparison to OTK, I think the problem was OTK could have ended at chapter 34, with chapters 35-50 being enough of a plot and change of pace to be it's own minor story or sequel. Unfortunately, that was my third year of writing that story, and even working at a job that gave me opportunity to write while being paid, it still took ten months to write the last ten chapters or so, and I definitely got very lazy with chapters 47-49. With UDL, there might be a similar point around the time the Ice Worm shows up with what I have planned where it could be considered a halfway point "ending", but since it follows "most" of the plot points of AC6, it will flow much more smoothly, and be filled to the brim with action as a result. Still, considering the crossovers UDL is associated with, it will definitely be a surprise even for people who've played through AC6 to see how events are twisted and changed to fit with this story I'm making, and how dark it gets. So please! Go give that I look over! It's only just begun, and it will get so very very exciting! (And also emotionally damaging!)