Chapter 15 By Butcher's Blades
"Nah! Nah! Nah!" Tabane laughed heartedly, watching the news. Her little finding of those human slaughterhouses in Big Box was a huge blow to the credibility of ORCA in this already troubled time.
Oh, Tabane was smart enough to realize that those were probably put there by The League, as a desperate attempt to feed people on a devastated Earth, and that ORCA had likely never touched them. Still, the fact that ORCA had them and had not disclosed their existence was not a good look for them.
So, between the global devastation suffered by their world with the detonation of the Catalina Island Reactor Complex and the resulting shockwave and tsunami, and the possibility that ORCA might be a society of high functioning cannibals, no one would ever trust them again.
Already, the whole world was mobilizing for war, a force so large and powerful that even those Lynx in their fancy Third Gen Custom Armored Cores wouldn't be able to hold them off.
"Goodbye ORCA! Goodbye Armored Cores!" Tabane cheered. "Now no one will question my IS as being anything less than the most super awesome technology that saves this world! Oh yes! Yes! Yes!"
"Hahaha!" Tabane danced. "I did it! I did it! I saved this world from the terrorist state! Oh yes! You are so welcome! Nah! Nah! Nah!"
Washington DC, United States / August 19th, 2030 – 6:00PM
The American President was dressed in her deepest black suit, wearing a somber face as she spoke to the world, from the center of Congress, surrounded by Senators and Congressmen.
"I come before you in a moment of terrible tragedy. Carrying, as we all do the heartbreaking sorrow of our nearly thirty million dead. But we are also at a singular moment in history. We have been confronted by an unknown enemy in a way that is unprecedented. First the appearance of Big Box, then a demonstration of the invader's weapons. The unmistakable evidence of an enemy whose mission and purpose we cannot fathom. We must not shy away from this or pretend otherwise. The one thing that we know for certain, the one thing I can offer, is this: humanity has faced the unprecedented before. We have discovered the unimagined wonders and terrors before. And through our courage, vision, and faith, both through our purpose and in one another, we have seen our way through even the darkest nights. And I am here to tell you from my heart that we will do so again." She paused, allowing the assembly of American leaders to applaud. "The first step, that most necessary and fundamental beginning, is for humanity as a whole to recognize that we are one people. Arguments over fraction and party must be set aside so that we can turn our attention to this most dangerous enemy. And that, I must tell you, with the greatest sorrow, is the truth that ORCA has long abandoned. Given a chance to transcend our history, ORCA has instead insisted on a path of barbaric conquest, which is actually no more than a justification for war and violence. It looks upon this terrible moment as an opportunity to expand their despotic empire of tyranny across the world. They have lost sight of our shared humanity, and so they must be reminded. It is our duty, not as the United States of America, but as the member states of this shared planet, and as the moral leaders of our species, to unify our fractions, to definitively end the divisions between our nations, to be what we have always been: one race, one human race, under a unified flag of justice, and together, move forward, against this unprecedented foe, for the future of peace on our world!"
IS Academy
"Don't you see!" Ichika shouted, many students surrounding him, yelling in agreement. "ORCA is all tricks! All lies! Using their future tech to try and force the surrender of our world!"
"You tell them Ichika!" Houki yelled in agreement.
"From day one they have been trying to intimidate us! Scare us into replacing our unique Infinite Stratos with their brutish and terrible war machines! Well I say enough!"
"Quite so dear! Quite so!" Cecilia added.
"There isn't a force in the world that can match the Infinite Stratos! Against their few elite I know we will come out on top!"
"Right! We'll take them all on!" Laura declared.
"This time, it isn't about bragging rights or having a fair fight! This time, we bring ORCA to justice for their crimes against humanity and this world!"
"Let's kick their asses!" Rin screamed.
"So who's with me!" Ichika asked at the top of his lungs.
"Yeah!" The rest of the students shouted.
"Y-Yeah!" Charlotte agreed, however meekly.
. . .
Elsewhere were four people who's opinions on ORCA were slightly less popular.
"…Tatenashi…were you able to contact May?" Chifuyu questioned.
"Yes." Tatenashi nodded. "She said that the 'human slaughterhouses' were a leftover from when The League built the megastructure. Their world was devastated to such totality that there was nothing left to eat, and two billion people actually died of starvation before The League came up with a…desperate solution. It's no secret on their world, but between starvation and industrialized, dissociated cannibalism, their world chose survival, at any cost. The reason ORCA has been making such desperate attempts to acquire food on our world is because they have no want to return to that practice."
"I mean, it makes sense." Maya added. "The way they talk about their world…it sounds like everything came down to the survival of the human race, and the greed of The League."
"It's so sad that they would be so desperate." Kanzashi noted. "They just tried to build a nation for their people. To be proud of who they are. Now…the whole of our world is against them."
"Yes…and my idiot brother is galvanizing the entire student body to charge ORCA now and break down their doors." Chifuyu sneered. "Even if we do win, ORCA will not hold back, and many students will die for nothing."
"I…think I have an idea, to give the students a way out. So that they won't be the front line of this coming war." Maya spoke up.
"Good. Because all we can do at this point is mitigate casualties." Chifuyu sighed. "This war shouldn't have happened…but we have no choice in the matter. Tabane has forced our hand, and all we can do now is survive."
Big Box
"Though there is still an ongoing crisis in North America with the destabilized tectonic plates causing serious damage to cities as far inland as Las Vegas, and the volcanic activity in the Los Angeles Dead Zone escalating to a flood basalt eruption; we can comfortably estimate the detonation of the Catalina Island Reactor Complex, and the resulting shockwave and tsunami, have killed forty million humans globally. Those numbers are expected to rise dramatically over the next few years." Wolcott reported.
"The United Nations has decreed that the ORCA nation must stand down, disarm, prepared to be occupied by foreign peacekeepers, submit it's leaders for trial, and pay in excess of fifty trillion US dollars in damages." Fiona added. "Though our asteroid mining is extremely profitable and we would be able to pay that amount in a short amount of time, no one is doing business with ORCA anymore. The League Coam has no value in the global market after recent events. Even if the ORCA nation survives, it will be little more than a puppet state for the United Nations to use to advance their goals, probably on the backs of our citizens. As for our people…? They will probably be fine, though the possibility that they will be sent to reeducation camps to wipe out the very idea of ORCA is also a strong probability. At that point, ORCA as a concept will die."
There was something different about this meeting today. It was not being held in the private meeting room near the top in the military sector. It was being held in the middle of the street, in one of the cities of the civilian sector. It was being broadcast, for all of ORCA to witness. Additionally, there were no chairs, no table, just a line on the floor for the citizens to give ORCA command some space. Otherwise, the vast majority of their citizens had crammed themselves into that one city, surrounding them. Whether they were standing there in that city, or sitting in their homes, all twenty million citizens of ORCA were watching.
There were no secrets in ORCA.
"…" Thermidor sighed. He bowed his head in shame. "Was I wrong?" He asked quietly. "Was I too ambitious? I am not a politician, nor a nation builder. I'm just a soldier…doing my pathetic best to protect a people who came into my care. I simply wanted ORCA to stand as a nation, to build a future of hope that would avoid the mistakes of The League. In that respects…I think I have failed." He smirked. "It seems no matter where we go, no matter what we do, we are a condemned people. Condemned to be monsters, condemned to be hated and hunted and feared. ORCA against all, as it was before, so is it again."
He looked up, at his fellow Lynx. At his fellow citizens. "What other choices are before us? To surrender is the death of ORCA."
"…In theory, we could run." Malzel suggested. "We take everyone and start again on Mars. We have the ships, and our Flight Bunkers. We poison Big Box in our wake, and build our dream alone, without the Earth. It would take a century for this world to build the military force needed to catch up to us on Mars, and by that time, we should be ready. Of course…" He thought realistically. "We could not take everyone all at once, and this world would try and stop us. As well, our food production is not yet up to capacity. Unless we put our citizens on ice for years, we could lose half our people to starvation."
"Then there is only one logical choice left." Fanchon spoke up. "We fight."
"…And that's what I fear." Thermidor admitted. "If we fight, we do so with all our force, no holding back. We cannot simply hold them at the gates and wait for them to grow tired of a war they believe is justified. It could be years before they give in, and in a war of attrition, we lose, for the same reason as before, we run out of food. No, if we go to war, we must take the fight to the enemy, to strike them down one and all, every soldier and every leader. It is not that we lack the capacity to do so, we've run the numbers. No…the problem is that such a war would only confirm this world's worst fears. Such a war…would make us no better than The League."
"And is that so wrong?" Klein questioned. "ORCA was built from the rejected, the rebel and the terrorist. The very worst of our world, the scaped bottom of the barrel, and we fought The League and nearly won. There is no shame in being monsters if it means that we are respected."
"I was once League, as many of you know." Greenfield spoke up. "The poster-child of their Economic War, their golden-green girl. Under The League, our soldiers were only motivated by fear. Fear that they might fail and their families fed to The Butcher." She gestured towards Klein. "But here, in this ORCA Nation that you have all built, your only fear is that you might not do enough. I've seen the way ORCA fights, and trust me when I say that I have been honored to have been taken in by you. Every soldier fights with fury and passion to match a Lynx. That is no small feat."
Thermidor smiled, and called out to the crowd. "What's say you, fellow citizens? This world comes baring down on us with blades in both hands, how shall we meet them?"
"With blades in our teeth!" Came an answer from the crowd.
"And hearts full of rage!"
"Death to the outalowdas!"
"Remember the Cant!"
Thermidor smiled, and spread his arms wide. "So let it be war, my beratnas! Let your fury be known, my sesatas! We will be the terrorists! The criminals! The monsters this world fears! We will strike down the guilty and the innocent, all the same! Because we are ORCA! We stand alone against all!"
The crowd cheered, righteous and inspired. Ready to throw their lives away just for the chance to strike fear into hated enemies.
"And our first move, our first act of war, shall be to strike true fear into our enemies!" Thermidor declared. "They will send fleets, fighters, flights of furious females. They will send their children in the vain belief that we would not dare stoop to such temptations. I say, we send them one man. One man who's name means the death of a world. We send them Strayed."
The crowd quieted, terrified of that prospect. To send The Butcher into battle alone…for any who would stand against it…
"…" Klein smiled, and bowed in acceptance.
"Are you serious, Thermidor?!" Fiona sneered. "To send them Strayed alone…what of it's butchery!? It's savagery?!"
Thermidor smiled. "I'm counting on it."
August 25th, 2030 – 0330 Hours / IS Academy
"A propaganda unit!" Ichika shouted, enraged.
"Yes! It will be perfect!" The reporter who was apparently attached to them smiled cheerfully. She had a special IS suit with a neutral IFF signal so that she could keep up and record the battle to subjugate the terrorist state of ORCA. "You are familiar with the famous picture of US Marines raising their flag over Iwo Jima? You students are going to recreate that once the military is done securing a landing zone on Big Box! That way the world will see you guys as heroes who helped bring an end to the terrorist state!"
Though it was still an hour and a half till sunrise, the silhouette of the largest invasion force in modern history could easily be discerned in the darkness. Over a thousand ships from fifteen different Navies, the most advanced of which comprised the seven carrier strike groups of the United States Pacific Fleet. Three thousand aircraft, launched from both carriers and land installations, were said to be taking part. Lastly, over two hundred Infinite Stratos suits were going to be taking part as well, with teams from nearly every nation on Earth that possessed the technology.
And, at the back of this formation, serving as the reserve and propaganda unit, were the students of the IS Academy. Specifically, the six representative candidates, Cecilia, Rin, Charlotte, Laura, Tatenashi, and Kanzashi; two instructors, Chifuyu and Maya; and two other students, Houki and Ichika.
Only the four ORCA sympathizers were pleased enough with their position, but they kept that opinion to themselves. ORCA was a name only spoken with the darkest contempt these days.
It would be a while before the battle began. Still, the call caught them off guard.
"Hello…May?" Tatenashi answered.
"Please…don't fight us." May begged her.
"May, I don't want to fight this war, but everyone has gone too far to stand down. If we meet-"
"We won't." May declared. "I won't be fighting."
"What?"
"We…ORCA…is sending only one unit out there to intercept your forces." May explained. "You will not survive."
"May…what are you sending?"
"We are sending Strayed…and it will not show you any mercy." May warned. "Do. Not. Fight. It. If you can, surrender, before it targets you. Otherwise…All I can do is beg for your life."
The line was cut, and Tatenashi put down her phone.
"…What did she say?" Chifuyu questioned.
"…May said that they are only sending James Klein out to fight." Tatenashi reported.
"But…that's crazy?" Kanzashi noted. "James is strong, but he couldn't possibly fight the whole battle on his own…can he?"
Big Box – NEXT Hangar
It had been a while since he'd laid eyes on his customized 03-Aaliyah, 4th Generation Armored Core NEXT. The mass production prototype The League once used to subjugate his world. Elsewhere, the other five NEXT owned by ORCA were being readied for battle.
"For this battle, we are loading you with your preferred loadout." Haze informed him. "Two 063ANAR 120mm fully automatic rifles, modified with proximity fuse flak rounds, and with an increased capacity of ten eighty-round magazines each. Left-back mount is being loaded with a modified XCG-B050 quad-chaingun; each of it's four barrels has twice the ammo, for a total of 2,400 rounds of mixed 50mm high-explosive and armor piercing. The right back mount will be loaded with a 280mm OGOTO artillery cannon, loaded with thirty twenty-kiloton fusion warheads. Lastly, your two 07-Moonlight laser blades have been modified with an anti-IS shield piercer; any IS that gets within melee range is vulnerable. For your additionally equipment, you'll of course have your shoulder thrusters to aid in maneuverability, as well as an experimental sub-unit we are calling a 'Kojima filter' that will keep you from killing everyone with just waste radiation alone. No need to reveal that we have that capacity just yet."
"Your mission is to wipe out the aircraft and IS suits deployed by the enemy, and to defend Big Box. Leave the ships for the fortress artillery to deal with. Otherwise, your only support will be the PDCs and missiles launched from Big Box. Their primary target will be the enemy fleet, but air assets are also a priority." Malzel ordered him.
"At the end of your mission, it is likely you will be confronted by Academy students and staff. Kill them." Thermidor demanded.
"Sir, yes sir." James Klein nodded.
"James!" May grabbed him by the collar, sneering. "I heard you changed your contract! Why?! You don't think I could do it?! You don't think I could take their lives?!"
"I prefer not to find out." James answered simply. "I'll spare her, if she surrenders. But I might have to hurt her."
"…Seems no one will get what they want today." May grimaced.
"…James…" Fiona called. "I'll be your Operator for this mission."
"I'm honored." James bowed.
"Yes…just…" Fiona frowned. "Do what you have to do. This won't be the first world to call you a monster. But I know what you are, even if you forget."
"…Thank you." James smiled.
0357 Hours
"All units are in attack position. Awaiting final word."
"Copy, wait for final approval."
"Attention, forces of the ORCA Nation. This is your last warning. By order of the United Nations, stand down, or be engaged."
"This is the ORCA Nation, Thermidor speaking." It was the first time in a week anyone other than Tatenashi had heard from one of ORCA. "Seems there's nothing left to say." He said with a disappointed smile. "Strayed, prepare for launch."
Rising from an aircraft elevator on the roof of Big Box, the world had it's first look at the previously closely held secret that was the 4th Generation Armored Core NEXT.
"Ah…" Maya cried out fearfully. "That unit…it's twice as tall as other Armored Cores…and it's terrifyingly hot. That thing has a very powerful fusion reactor."
"Is this ORCA's secret weapon?" Chifuyu questioned.
"Wait…they're just sending James?" Ichika smirked. "How arrogant can they be? Hell, I'm disappointed. It means we won't get the chance to fight him."
"Now hear this!" Thermidor shouted on an open line. "Know that with what comes next, you will never forgive us. This war won't end until you, us, or both are completely wiped out. So be it. ORCA has been forced into this war against our will…but we won't back down. My final message, to those who would oppose us: UN dogs, welcome to Earth."
The time was 0400. The war began with a triple clap of thunder.
The main guns of Big Box, the three ten-meter caliber coilguns, had each been aimed for a high priority target, and fired. 17,000 ton solid steel shells fired at high velocity from the cannons struck the deck of a supercarrier, and split them into halves.
"The Nimitz, Carl Vinson, and the Roosevelt were all destroyed!"
"All units, attack!"
Then Strayed launched, first hovering a few feet into the air, then going supersonic.
"That AC! It just hit Mach two!"
"Intercept it at once!"
Hundreds of aircraft fired on the black Armored Core with air-to-air missiles, but Strayed dodged them all, moving in multiple directions, multiple times a second.
"What the hell!? That movement!?" One of the pilots cried out. "That should have broken every bone in their body!?"
In range with it's weapons, Strayed opened fire with everything. Nuclear shells thrown at tight formations, chaingun cutting through lines, and rifles picking off enemies with pinpoint precision. The skies burned with constant nuclear light. It rained burning debris and shattered corpses.
"T-Three hundred fighters down! B-But it's only been a minute!"
"No emergency transponders! That bastard is aiming for the cockpit!"
"Someone needs to stop that artillery! Big Box is tearing the fleet apart!"
"All IS pilots go! Destroy the AC! Then focus on Big Box!"
"Roger that! We'll take it down!"
Strayed kept their focus on cutting through the aircraft formations, never stopping even for a moment. The IS pilots, using Second Generation units, struggled to keep up, and focused on trying to engage the AC whenever it got close.
"Damn! It's too fast! I can't keep up with it!"
"We have to do something! Six hundred fighters have been shot down!"
"Shit! Big Box just fired again! Three more supercarriers are gone!"
"W-Wait…" Ichika shuddered, unbelieving as the reports came in. "T-This has to be a trick! There's no way this is real!"
"Why hasn't Strayed been shot down yet!?" Houki shouted
"It seems…it seems as through it is heavily shielded, nothing those IS units have is getting through it's energy shields." Maya reported hesitantly.
"ORCA has energy shielding…?" Laura realized.
"T-Then it must be an experimental model!" Ichika rationalized. "They must have copied IS technology to create that monster!"
"…This is bad." Chifuyu correctly realized.
"Just…a little more!" An IS pilot strained, as they fired their weapons at the black Armored Core. "Yes! We got the shield down! All units, fire on that unit!"
"Direct hit! Yes! We're…there's…no effect!?"
"What the hell!? Just keep shooting it! It has to give out at some point! Fire! Fire! Fire!"
"We've lost a third of our air cover!? What the hell are you ladies doing!? Kill that thing!"
"Yes sir! We're trying but…! What!? It's shielding…it came back online!?"
"That's impossible!"
"Dammit! We've lost all carriers now! Big Box is shifting it's focus to fire on the landing ships! IS units! Disengage and protect our troops! Or else this invasion will fail!"
"Roger! We'll…! Oh shi-"
"That AC! It's engaging the IS units! What the fuck!? That's too fast!?"
"Twenty IS units in thirty seconds!? How!? How is this possible!?"
"The IS is the most powerful weapon ever! G-Get away from me! No-"
There was no stopping it, everywhere Strayed went, death rained fast and exact, for one simple reason. Infinite Stratos was a unit designed for spectacle and sport. Armored Core NEXT was a weapons platform designed to slaughter armies and conquer worlds.
"Attention all units! The landing craft have been sunk! Retreat! The invasion has failed! Abort! Abort! Abort!"
"No! How could we lose!? Oh shit! I can't get away!"
"Half of the IS units have been shot down!? No survivors!?"
"Is this a nightmare!? What the fuck is that thing!?"
"No! No! No! This can't be happening!"
"Help me!"
The most disturbing thing wasn't the cries of despair, the desperate plea to survive as tens of thousands of people died. It was the silence that followed, how whole radio channels were reduced to nothing but static.
Until there was no radio calls at all.
"That…that was ten minutes…" Maya shivered. "The whole invasion force gone in ten minutes…"
"Impossible!" Ichika denied. "We can't be the only ones left!"
"We were wrong." Tatenashi realized. "We were so wrong."
"No! I refuse to believe this is it!" Houki denied. "We're still here! James still has to get through us! We can do this!"
"You're wrong." Chifuyu shook her head. "We should…surrender…"
"No way!" Ichika denied. "We can still do this! We can beat James and ORCA! We can save this world!"
"R-Right!" Charlotte agreed.
"Come on James! I'm not scared of you!" Rin shouted.
"It's time you pay for your crimes!" Cecilia added.
"We'll avenge these honored dead!" Laura declared.
"Students and Staff of the IS Academy, stand down." Fiona declared. "Surrender, or prepare to die."
"There's no way we'll surrender now!" Ichika answered. "Come and get us!"
"…I'm so sorry." The despair in Fiona's voice was palpable. "Operator to James 'Strayed' Klein. Engage at your discretion."
"Confirmed."
At this point, with all the soldiers dead, James and Strayed switched places. Strayed never liked this kind of work. Neither did James…but he still did it.
That massive, ten-meter tall Armored Core came to a stop a hundred meters from them, near the shore they were hovering over. It was far more intimidating than the third generation ACs. Nothing about it was improvised or added on. It was sleek and beautiful in a terrible way.
"Come on James, don't do this!" Tatenashi begged. "We can work something out! We don't have to keep fighting!"
"Please James! I know that we've been forced into this war against each other! But you are still a good man!" Kanzashi tried to reason with him.
"…" Though he had promised May that he would do what he could to spare Tatenashi, she was still the most dangerous opponent left, because of the anomalous characteristics of her IS unit. Therefore, the problem became how to remove her from the battle, without eliminating her. He found a solution.
"James! I know there is still good in you!" Kanzashi pleaded. "So let's talk things through and we'll-"
The 03-Aaliyah was fast, much faster than any of their reaction speeds. Without stopping to engage in useless discourse, James had already boosted behind the formation of remaining IS suits, and, with his laser blade off, stabbed Kanzashi in the back with the sharpened end of his laser blade mounting.
He had been very careful to stab her to absolutely kill her, but not quickly. Not for at least a few minutes. Long enough.
"K-Kanzashi!" Tatenashi screamed, seeing a meter long blade burst from Kanzashi's chest. It had missed most of her vital organs, but as James pulled his blade out, left such a gaping hole that she'd die of blood loss very shortly. Being as gentle as he could, James tossed the small girl into the arms of her sister, leaving them alone.
"Big…sis…" Kanzashi croaked out with her last few minutes of life.
"James…you bastard!" Ichika shouted, seeing the result of his work.
"…" He'd spent all his ammunition decimating the invasion force. Fortunately, he was better with blades anyway. Boosting right through their formation, James targeted one of the other most annoying targets, Cecilia. Her Orbit drones wouldn't do much, but better to do away with her anyway. A single swipe of his blade and the small, blonde, British girl was gone, left as little more than ash that scattered in the wind.
"You villain! I'll stop you!" Laura shouted, activating her AIC, and firing her wires to ensnare his AC.
"…" James decided to be especially cruel, and allowed Laura, Charlotte, Rin, Houki, and Ichika to believe they had any chance and fire on him. Their combined firepower popped his shields, and exposed his armor.
"Now Houki!" Ichika shouted. Together, he and Houki thrust their blades forward, at the upper core of the 03-Aaliyah. Houki's physical blades snapped on contact, and Ichika's laser blade only scorched the paint. James knew their weapons were too light to damage League forged hyperalloy armor, one of the densest materials known to man. Reaching out, James grabbed Ichika and Houki in his large hands, and smashed them together hard enough to stun them. He'd made a promise to the boy, after all, and his suffering had yet to reach it's apex.
"…" James pulled one of the wires Laura had on his wrist, and grabbed her, holding her close as he boosted away from the others. He then increased the power output of his reactor, and opened his heatsinks. For Laura, it was as though she was suddenly standing on the surface of the sun, and evaporated in the face of such power.
"Y-You! You evil bastard!" Rin shouted, firing on his armor with her Shock Cannons, scratching the paint. There was no perceivable damage to be reported from her attack. His reactor back to normal output, James reached out, and grabbed her by the head. He swiftly closed his fist, her head caught, crushed within it. Her body went limp, blood pouring from his closed fist, until he dropped her lifeless body into the ocean below.
With tears streaming down her face, Charlotte fired her weapons at him. Though the rounds were consistent with heavy caliber machine guns, they were still too small to damage a NEXT. James rushed her quickly, and erased her existence with a laser blade.
"…!" Chifuyu was in shock. The swiftness and brutality of his attacks, the cold callousness of his kills. This was not the James she knew…or perhaps it was. Perhaps this was always a part of him, and it was so normalized, so relaxed, that she'd never realized it.
"Maya…we need to…" Chifuyu never saw her friend again. She hadn't even seen James move, but when she looked at her friend, all that was left was ash, raining off the brilliant heat of a purple, Moonlight blade.
"…" James disengaged a short distance, waiting.
"James…you-! You bastard!" Ichika screamed. "You evil, cold bastard! How could you!?"
"…"
"I…I'm going to kill you! I'm going to take you down and make you beg for your life! Ahh!" Ichika activated his Second-Shift, his IS becoming significantly stronger as it glowed with a pure white light.
"Ichika! N-No! Stop it! Just surrender!" Chifuyu begged.
"Ahhhh!" Ichika swung down at James with his own laser blade.
"…" Faster than Ichika could react, James had brutalized him. Punching him in the stomach and head and chest and back with massive, armored fists half his size. Ichika was barely conscious after the fact, and alive only because James wanted him to be.
Satisfied that Ichika had been temporarily neutralized, James reached out exceptionally calmly and went for the two other IS users in close proximity.
"James! You'll die for this! This time I won't-!" Houki was shouting when James hit her over the head with a fist, forcing her to the ground. It took an exceptional amount of control to put his foot on top of Houki, and not force the ten-meter tall war machine to crush her outright.
"Stop it James! That's enough! We'll surrender! Please just-!" Chifuyu had made the mistake of straying into his range, close enough that he caught her in one of his hands and gently squeezed, just enough to choke her lungs closed. He then held her up high, and used his other hand to grab her by the legs.
Ichika looked up in his pained stupor to see a sight he could scarcely imagine. The last two girls he had any relation or care for, his older sister, and his very first friend, at the mercy of a being without mercy. Houki pinned with over twenty tons of League war machine on her back, threatening to smash her like a bug, and Chifuyu in James's grasp, being choked out and a moment way from being torn asunder.
"No…! No! Don't do it!" Ichika begged, on his knees pleading, hoping that anything would stop James 'Strayed' Klein from committing an act of utter depraved butchery.
"…" The way the 03-Aaliyah tilted it's head to the side, Ichika could tell that James felt nothing about these last few minutes he had slaughtered his friends. That he felt nothing about what he was going to do to those two girls. He was just fulfilling a promise he made.
James just wanted Ichika to watch as he took everything from him in the most terrible way possible.
"No! No!" Ichika managed to save Houki and Chifuyu. Not because of his strength, nor his conviction. James had taken those things and shat all over them. Proven the obvious superiority of the Armored Core over them. Proven that he would very much kill children without the slightest hesitation.
Proven that he was a monster beyond their limited comprehension.
Ichika saved Houki and Chifuyu by running away. He used his IS to take off and not allow himself to see what James would do to them.
"…" James hissed in disappointment. He couldn't hurt Ichika if he wasn't watching. He stepped back from Houki and roughly dropped Chifuyu, each of them barely conscious after the abuse he had put them through.
He'd have to hunt that boy down later. He had a promise to keep, after all.
A second later, an ORCA helicopter descended near them. All the while, the reporter had been forced to watch, recording as the "heroes" of their world had suffered such indignity and loss.
"By order of ORCA Command, deactivate your IS suits, and surrender! You will be treated fairly as prisoners of war under international law!"
Big Box – Roof / 0505 Hours
They'd been forced to sit and watch as ORCA left over three hundred thousand sailors and marines of the invasion force to drown in the waters near the foot of the Big Box Fortress. Forced to watch as the sun rose over seas turned bright red.
They'd been forced to sit and watch as the ORCA war machine spun up to capacity. The deafening roar of Big Box's massive artillery guns raining volley after volley across Japan. Flight after flight of fighters and bombers leaving with their ordnance bays full, and returning empty.
They'd been forced to sit and watch as Rin and Kanzashi…the only corpses they had left to recover…were taken below as well.
All the while, James had stood nearby, outside the cockpit of his AC, with an unnaturally calm expression on his face. Like he hadn't just killed thousands of people. Like he hadn't just killed their closest friends. Like they had always known him. Quiet and bored.
Thermidor had stepped out onto the roof, sitting a distance away with his back to the rising sun, looking over the red ocean two kilometers below.
Chifuyu, Houki, and Tatenashi had been sitting on their knees, with their hands bound behind their backs. When Thermidor had sat down, Klein grabbed Tatenashi by the shoulders, and stood her on her feet. He then grabbed Chifuyu and Houki by the hair on the back of their heads, and dragged them on their knees over to Thermidor. The reporter had her own guard, who guided her along, and forced her to watch and listen all the same.
"I tried to warn you." Thermidor sighed. "We tried to tell you: 'Don't fight us'. And this is the result. Did you not believe us? Did you truly believe in your own overwhelming supremacy that we could not ever overcome your technology?"
"You…you terrorists! Monsters! Evil bastards!" Houki shouted.
"Yes." Thermidor smiled sadly. "That is the only thing ORCA has ever truly lied about. We were never a 'resistance.' We have always been terrorists. Built by The League, by order of The League, to oppose The League. Insane, I know, but it's the truth. We have always been monsters, committing such terrible, unspeakable crimes."
"…And…what of James Klein?" Chifuyu questioned. "What kind of man would kill children?"
"The kind of man who had everything taken from him. The kind who'd been torn apart and made into the hound of the very corporations he so despised. The kind who was used, over and over, to subjugate and slaughter the innocent, culling them. The kind who I used for the same, in the name of ORCA."
"W-What did he do?" Tatenashi shivered with rage and sorrow. "How many innocent people was he forced to kill?"
"…James 'Strayed' Klein is guilty for the deaths of over a billion humans, and all of them, innocent." Thermidor explained coldly. "Like I said, we tried to warn you, but none of you would listen."
"Y-You…You…" Houki sneered, horrified and enraged. "Someone will stop you! The good guys always win!"
"Oh child…" Thermidor shook his head. "You haven't realized it yet? There are no heroes and villains. Just butchers, all of us. This entire war was orchestrated by your sister. Her hatred of our technology, her childish tantrums, have led us to this dire and unfortunate circumstance. Now, because of her, I have to conquer another planet."
Thermidor left, walking back towards the flight deck of Big Box, and the three girls and the reporter saw a terrible sight. Five more, ten-meter tall Armored Cores NEXT, lined up and ready for combat missions. Machines designed to conquer and subjugate, with swift and terrible brutality.
Then James "Strayed" Klein spoke.
"In all my years of conquest…violence…slaughter...it was never personal." He told them slowly and calmly. "But I'll tell you now…what I'm about to do to your stubborn…annoying little planet. I'm going to enjoy it. Very very much."
Author's Note: I am probably completely biased, but Armored Core NEXT are no joke. They are ridiculously fast, carry tremendous firepower, and have a history of achieving incredible feats. I don't remember if I mention it in this story, but the corporations that would end up forming The League conquered the earth with just 26 NEXT in 6 days...canonically. In theory, the first IS would be able to achieve something similar, but no other IS units in the show have that much power to throw around, or ever achieve similar results. In fact, most IS units seem to have hard limits that make them far less powerful than NEXT. So yeah, half the IS cast are now dead, and the only one I regret killing off is Kanzashi.
Two citations to note. The American President's speech was taken from The Expanse, just had to change Mars out for ORCA and a few other things. And the last line, which is a Thanos quote. Yeah, James is just a little bit fucked up.
You are getting this chapter so soon as I completed chapter 19 in just 4 hours, so we're on a roll. I just have to write two more chapters to finish this story, and I can throw myself headlong into UDL.
Anyhow, things will start wrapping up pretty quickly here, and I can't wait to show you all this nightmare. Stay tuned!
To Napster153: He definitely has a role to play in this story, and it is not the good guy. And if you think this is dark, you're going to want to check out Under Dead Light when I get back to writing that. That shit is going to be dark! I'm glad that I am inspiring you, so feel free to ask me any questions. I'm happy to answer and I look forward to whatever depraved story you have planned!
To Sol Sunlight: That is certainly going to be the implication of things going forward. I hope you are excited as I am to see how ORCA conducts war!
To snipervtk4: I'm curious why you thought the US would stay out of the war? They suffered the largest share of losses, they would be first to seek retribution, I would think. And yeah, I didn't want to deal with Kojima radiation just yet, so I wrote in a one line BS excuse for why that didn't happen when it totally should have. I do have another side note to make about that, but I have to wait until I release the next chapter to comment on that. Oh...wait, you are reading and commenting on this story on AO3 too? Okay, way to confuse me. I'm not 100% who you are on that site, but there are definitely certain parts of that whole scene that unfortunately require suspension of disbelief to make this story happen the way it has. Hope that hasn't dulled your enjoyment though!
To Boshwa: Hope I delivered on your hopes! That fight was nasty!
To zacker1590: Yes, it would be logical to destroy infrastructure to impede an enemy in a conventional war. However, ORCA doesn't have to fight a conventional war. NEXT offer the firepower equivalent of a nuclear weapon with the precision of a scalpel, meaning they can wipe out whole divisions in a matter of minutes. As well, it is simply cleaner to target military instillations and personnel. Leave the war crimes to James.
To NexusPrime42: Yeah, I didn't much care for the IS cast at all. Save for one, I enjoyed killing them all off.
To Jredor13: Unfortunately, Tabane is just a little too self certain to allow just the sight of a NEXT to break her mind. Still, it will be fun to see how she responds to this incident.
To WarmasterXI: All I can say is that Ichika has no hope of challenging James while he's in an AC, let alone a NEXT. Against James outside of an AC, it would be slightly more evenly matched. Or so it would seem.
To memoryofvirtual: 30 meters? AC NEXT are only 10 meters tall, the same as the 6th Gen Cores from AC6 (and technically the other generations minus 5th Gen, but for plot purposes please pretend 1st through 3rd Gen are 5 meters tall in this story).
To naufalrakha0104: Yeah, the "idiot with a harem of girls who all love him but is barely aware of this fact" is a stupid trope and it made researching this story tedious and mind numbing. At least with James he is actively aware of how people feel about him, he just makes an active effort to avoid most relationships. You don't know happy I was to kill off most of the IS characters in a matter of minutes, it makes remembering names a lot easier.
To Gwynx: Well, I hope you enjoyed this! Stay tuned for more!
To XsOnicblAdeX: Admittedly, in my stories, everyone in the 4th gen timeline is used to the "human reprocessing facilities." They may not like it, but they understand it. It is much more difficult to rationalize that from a modern day perspective.
To Just a reader now a writer: Yeah, things have gone very poorly for the cast and this world. And it only gets worse from here!
To Valerious Lake: My reasoning is that Chifuyu actually knows Tabane and what she's like. As well, she's been close enough to ORCA affairs and seen their reasoning to believe their side of the story. For everyone else however, Tabane is still a "good guy" who gifted the world the IS and supposedly achieved world peace because of it. They have no reason to believe that Tabane is the bad guy, and if Chifuyu had pointed it out, she might have been labled as a ORCA sympathizer, the same as Tatenashi and Kanzashi almost were a few chapters ago.
To EmperoCeph: Tabane is an interesting problem, but I think I nailed her characterization and progression. Through the IS anime and the random things I read about her actions in the light novels, Tabane is happy to be the puppet master, openly supporting the IS Students and Phantom Task for her amusement. I'm not entirely sure why, but there is evidence that she actually dislikes Ichika, but supports him because it's fun to watch him struggle against Phantom Task, and it's "funny" to watch his antics with his harem. However, she is basically never upset or intimidated because she is always the strongest character and nothing opposes the IS suits.
In this story, like James explained in ch13, having ACs compared to IS units enrages Tabane because they are utilitarian and military machines that go against the perverse and stylized form the IS suits take. As well, ORCA's actions undermine her creditability as the most important person ever, since all she wants to do is watch people play with her IS suits, while ORCA is focused on building a nation and helping advance humanity. Tabane is too narcassistic and self centered to consider helping humanity as a whole, she just wants people to see how cool the IS suits are and to praise her for creating them.
As a small spoiler, seeing James and ORCA break her IS suits will infuriate her, but only because she sees those who die and lose as being unworthy of utilizing the true potential of the IS. It was another comment I made at some point in this story to the question of "why doesn't Tabane upgrade the IS so they can match ACs?" My answer is that Tabane already considers the IS to be perfect, so she shouldn't have to do anything to prove they are better.
As far as ACs in general, the 4th Generation are as ridiculous as this chapter would indicate. They are always moving at Mach speed, multiple times a second and in multiple directions, and they bring enough ordnance to kills tens of thousands of people per sortie. It's why 4th Gen is so controversial, because they are so powerful that only other ACs or very powerful mechs can ever engage them in fair combat.