Chapter 55
A Fragmentary Gain
With the increasing propagation of services and integration of Japanese people into public life, more and more of Administrative Area 11's native populace was finding the confidence to openly partake in that life once more. Where once people would hurry furtively through the streets even if their actions were entirely innocuous, now most felt relaxed enough to greet each other or even dawdle. Most, but still not all, for there were some that did genuinely have untoward ends in mind. For them, the eased security environment did make it a bit easier to move about, but their goals were such it would be extremely perilous for them to slacken their guard too much. After all, if there was anyone that the Britannians were still determined to see outright dead, it would be the persons gathered in this out of the way office.
"Are the preparations complete?" the woman with flowing black hair demanded.
"I have selected the proxies that will perform the deed," Seishirou answered confidently. "You can be assured that they will succeed."
"I will be reassured once the legacy of Kamine Island has been restored to the true Ise," the woman said, "and not to those that pander to Eden Vital."
"If you say so," the assassin said with a bemused smirk.
The woman gave him a glowering look, but the third member present spoke before she could verbalize her annoyance.
"The task that has been set is no easy thing, Kanoe-san," the man said, "and it will not be made easier if we are at loggerheads with each other. Better that we focus on how to improve our odds instead, no?"
Kanoe Sumeragi, priestess of Ise, albeit disavowed by the order proper, took a deep breath.
"You are right, Yuto-san. The important thing is ensuring the day of judgment succeeds, otherwise everything will have been for naught."
The woman sat back down and looked over at Seishirou. Her expression was no softer, but the scowl at least was absent.
"Tell us, in detail, the preparations you have made," she ordered.
The assassin raised an eyebrow. "I may be in your employment presently, Sumeragi-sama, but that does not oblige me to reveal methods and means to you."
"Without knowing those methods and means, we cannot ascertain as to whether they are adequate," Kanoe reposted, "nor of how they might be augmented by our own resources. You are not the only asset we have on call, after all."
Seishirou tilted his head, but after a moment shrugged. "If you so insist."
It was certainly an abrupt turnabout as compared to his prior protest, with Seishirou seeming oddly apathetic to having his methods exposed. Perhaps the man really did not care, or did not think such exposure would matter.
"The security around the venue is going to be extremely tight," Seishirou said, "which will make it difficult to site anyone close enough to guarantee a shot by sniper. It can be done, but the closest any marksman is likely to get would be about two kilometers at best. The man I've chosen might well be able to make the shot, but he's not likely to get off more than one shot before his position is compromised."
"So why bother?" Kanoe asked, frowning.
"Because he would merely be the diversion," the assassin responded. "The real threats will be hidden amongst the masses gathered at the venue, the sheer number of people expected to attend will work in our favor. Britannia will want to make a show of how inclusive they are being, so we can expect them to allow a full crowd, or close enough to it."
"I see, that makes sense," Kanoe said. "And? How many operatives will you have blended in the crowd?"
"Two."
An eyebrow arched upward. "Just two?"
Seishirou place a hand on his chest. "Myself and one other, should be more than enough."
Kanoe's brow furrowed. "I'm not sure I agree with that. You have two targets to eliminate, even taking into account your sniper, is this not cutting it rather close?"
"On the contrary," Seishirou said, giving off a serene smile, "the one is more than enough. My presence is merely a matter of insurance."
Yuto Kigai, Kanoe's partner in crime, and in bed, tilted his head. "Who exactly is this operative that you have such confidence in?"
"Why, none other than my dear Subaru," Seishirou said, that smile turning from serene into absolutely frigid.
For a moment Kanoe and Yuto's demeanors actually faltered upon hearing that name.
"Subaru," Kanoe repeated. "You managed to compromise Subaru."
"It is what I do," Seishirou said, a snide smirk crossing his face before disappearing without a trace. "After taking his dear sister's life, I wonder what face he will make when he finds his hands bloodied by his cousin's? I would love to see it personally, but I suspect he may not survive the aftermath, if rumors about Eden Vital's guard dogs are to be believed."
Clearly shaken despite her attempt to effect a composed visage, Kanoe gave a slight huff.
"So long as both Kaguya and Subaru are taken care of, the means doesn't matter."
"If you say so," Seishirou said, effecting that eerie smile once again.
"If this works, then access control of the Kamine Island thought elevator should fall to you, Kanoe-san," Yuto said. "That should provide us all the bargaining power we need to win the necessary concessions from our sponsors."
"Indeed," Kanoe said, letting out another sigh. "But we shouldn't take for granted success. There is still-"
The ring of a cellphone interrupted Kanoe, causing the woman to frown. She had explicitly instructed her subordinates to not try to reach her while she was holding this meeting, to avoid anyone tracking her. If someone violated the orders, something must have happened. Taking the phone out, her frown deepened as she saw the name on it. She answered.
"Yes, what is it, Satsuki-"
"Sumeragi-sama!" the girl on the other hand cut her off. "Get out of there-"
Before she too was summarily interrupted. To her credit, Kanoe did not spend overly long being shocked or surprised. After a brief moment, she made for the door.
"We've been compromised," she declared.
That was enough for Yuto and Seishirou both to make haste. The former hurried along aside Kanoe, while Seishirou set off to make a separate escape. A moment later, a boom sounded as the front door of the building was breached.
Like Eden Vital, the Ise Grand Shrine maintained a small private army that could be called upon to defend its interests. The bulk of the manpower that filled its ranks came from the various Buddhist orders, with Ise's own priesthood serving in leadership roles. Despite the Ise schism and the subsequent Britannian invasion, the bulk of Ise's sohei, or monk soldiers, had remained loyal to the portion of Ise that was now reorganizing with Kaguya at their head. And while the sohei army did not possess the level of technical proficiency as Eden Vital's own Order Militant, it was still a credible fighting force, having retained enough weapons to be a genuine thorn in the Britannian effort to integrate Japan had they joined in the insurgency. Fortunately for all involved, Ise's remaining leadership had managed to sit on the sohei and otherwise bide their time until a resolution was clearer.
With the revelation of how the Sakurazukamori had managed to compromise Ise's upper echelons, another reason for the sohei being functionally restricted to barracks was to give Ise and Eden Vital time to search for and identify any other sleepers that might be lying in wait. Thanks to the data gathered from treating Suzaku, Eden Vital was able to develop a means of detection, and even more importantly, deprogramming that did not carry with it significant risk of brain death. The process developed was ultimately a time-consuming one, which would put out of action anyone needing it for the short term, another reason why the sohei would not be seeing much utilization anytime soon. At least not in force.
Even as some of the sohei had been yanked and placed into protective custody, a growing number were also being cleared as never having been compromised in the first place. Indeed enough had been so vetted that a small, very small, force of sohei was accompanying the Eden Vital kill-team that was even now descending upon this out of the way office in the outskirts of Tokyo. Their presence was not because Eden Vital thought it would have any trouble taking down their targets, but to help confirm that the sought after persons really were taken care of.
While obscurity had been the Ise heretics' greatest defense, they had not been completely reliant on it. A few token guards were present, though they were limited to what weapons they could hide on their persons. The kill-team that descended upon them on the other hand was wearing full tactical armor and wielding all-up assault rifles. Rules of engagement were also relaxed, taking the likes of Kanoe or Yuto alive might be useful from an intelligence perspective, but no one would shed any tears if they were gunned down in the crossfire.
When the main door blew open, those guards not completely dazed by it and the subsequent flashbangs immediately opened up. Pistol rounds however only dented the tactical shields of the soldiers that made the initial breach. The shots did confirm nicely the presence of hostile targets, which the Eden Vital soldiers responded to with lethal efficiency. The Order had taken no chances, so every soldier's primary was loaded with armor piercing. That technically meant quite a few shots blew right through the bodies of their targets, but with how many rounds were put into them, it hardly mattered.
"KISAMAAAAAAAA!"
By this point any rational person would have dropped their weapons and tried to surrender. Fanatics as the heretics were, they apparently thought dying a glorious death was a better idea. Several of the survivors, now shrugging off their disorientation, pulled out short swords and charged at the strike team. At such range it was actually somewhat difficult for the soldiers to take advantage of their firepower, lest they risk hitting a friendly. Of course, just because a rifle wasn't exactly made to be a bludgeoning implement did not mean it couldn't serve that role in a pinch. And despite what certain popular media might lead one to believe, cutting through the steel of a rifle barrel was not easily or readily achieved by a conventional sword.
The clang of metal sounded as the soldiers engaged in a fierce melee against the heretics. The numbers were already tilted against the latter, so few actually got in anything more than a token swing or two before being beaten into the ground. Even the slashes that seemed to strike true did little more than bounce. While there was no such thing as something truly being bullet and stab proof, Eden Vital had still invested a significant amount of effort in making body armor that was as resistant to such threats as possible.
"Room clear," Kallen declared when the last hostile went down. "Six enemy KIA, four still breathing, for now."
"Movement detected in the basement of the building," Lucretia's voice sounded over the radio. "High probability they are the HVTs."
"Acknowledged, pursing."
With the high value of the targets they were going after today, as well as the awareness of what the Sakurazukamori was capable of, Lelouch was pulling out nearly all the stops by dispatching Lucretia and Kallen to oversee the operation. The former's sight should hopefully ensure no one would be slipping away, while the latter could probably neutralize any physical obstacles that might arise. Obstacles like a heavy door bolted shut.
"No traps on the other side?" Kallen said over the radio.
"None detected," Lucretia confirmed.
Breaching charges would have opened the way perfectly fine, but that would have taken time to set up. Kallen simply took a deep breath, then expelled some of the energy she kept in reserve in her kick. The poor door was torn completely out of its frame.
"One hostile is peeling away and taking a different route," Lucretia said. "Profile suggests it is the Sakurazukamori."
"I will handle him," the man immediately following Kallen declared. "You make sure Kanoe and Kigai are captured."
"If you're sure."
"I am," the man declared as he set off.
Kallen jerked her head, signaling for some of the squad to follow after. As confident as her comrade was, she was still not going to let him go running off without backup. That done, she set off after her own quarry. Her targets should ultimately be run to ground fairly quickly, if only because of the difference in physical fitness. As far as Kallen knew, Kanoe was a renegade Ise priestess while Kigai a former bureaucrat. As Kanoe was not one of the priestesses responsible for Ise's martial affairs, both she and Kigai should be considerably slower and have less endurance than Kallen even before her augmentation. Yet the chase was turning out to be less than straightforward, as all manner of impediments started getting in Kallen's way. Even with Lucretia guiding her, the two escapees were able to put between themselves and their pursuers a remarkable number of locked doors or suddenly raised barriers, enough so that even Kallen was starting to run out of energy to punch through them with, a distinct difference between her and Dalque.
"Cartographer, what's going on?" Kallen called over the radio. "How are they getting through all these doors? Shouldn't they be locked?"
"All of the doors they have passed through have networked digital locks that someone is helping override," Lucretia answered. "I have put in a request for Abacus to assist, but it will take her some time to perform a counter-hack."
Kallen grunted. The technical details were beyond her, so she focused on those things she did know how to do. Still, if this hacker did end up allowing her quarry to escape, she was going to be very peeved.
"Sirius, this is Abacus," Sancia's voice sounded not long after. "The enemy hacker is attempting to interfere with Cartographer's mapping, she will need to focus solely on that. I am taking over as control."
"Bloody hell, they can do that?" Kallen murmured.
"Current path of HVTs suggests they are attempting to rendezvous with reinforcements," Sancia continued. "Backup strike teams are being diverted to try to neutralize the enemy hacker. Other teams are being mobilized, but your team is presently the only one with a reasonable probability of reaching the HVTs before they can escape out of Cartographer's range."
"Understood," the girl said.
That was however going to be easier said than done, as they came upon another locked door.
"Breach," Kallen ordered, finally out of energy to keep bashing through them.
One of the soldiers deftly planted a charge.
"Clear!"
With no known threats on the other side, the kill-team was through the door the moment it was blown off. On her HUD, Kallen could see the approximate location of where her targets were, along with their projected escape path. If the enemy really was trying to jam Lucretia's mapping, then they were clearly not having much success yet-
"Fuck!"
Kallen's outburst caught the accompanying soldiers off-guard, as did her sudden skidding to a stop.
"Double back!" Kallen ordered. "Our nav system's been compromised!"
"Are you certain, Sister?" one of the soldiers asked even as they started chasing after her.
"Mordred just dropped a call on me," Kallen said, drastically simplifying the telepathic messaging that she was now undergoing. "Do not trust long-range coms or any of the other AR guides."
The nice thing about this particular kill-team was that they were ones fully brought into Eden Vital's secrets, or near enough to know about the special abilities granted to contractors like Kallen and Anya. That meant even if they did not fully understand the girl, they were still prepared to take her at her word and obey. For her part, Kallen was just grateful she did not have to waste more time trying to convince them. The diversion caused by the enemy hack had already been a bad enough delay, to the point where the targets might actually slip past Lucretia's range if they did not hurry.
"Almost there," Kallen said. "Last door, whoa, hold back!"
The telepathic warning from Anya came nearly too late, for the soldiers if not exactly for Kallen, as gunfire perforated the door. Kallen responded in kind, though the image from Lucretia was spotty enough that she could not be certain if she actually hit anyone.
"Shotgun breach, stack to the right, flash after the door is open then after me! Now!"
The soldier equipped with said weapon fired twice, blowing through the lock. The door still refused to fully open, promptly Kallen to give it one final kick. She immediately ducked to let the flashbang arc over her head, but did not wait before charging in. The shockwave from the detonation did not even faze her, instead serving to recharge some of her spent energy reserves. No bullets added to that contribution however, which was just as well as Kallen was still not to the point where she could shrug off being shot like that even in body armor, yet.
There were three men inside, all armed. One just barely had time to raise his gun before Kallen dropped him. Another was still too dazed from the flashbang to aim coherently, so he earned merely a kick to the shin that sent him toppling. The third however, was pointing his gun not at Kallen, but himself. Kallen did not hesitate, though shooting a gun out of someone's hands was easier said than done. The burst shattered the man's hand, but that his own pistol went off in the process. Kallen's shot did at least throw off the aim, if only slightly, as a searing gash was formed along the man's cheek.
"Targets neutralized, secure the suspects," Kallen ordered. "HVT is going to need medical attention."
Leaving the others to handle the grunt work, Kallen carefully scanned the rest of the room. Of the three targets the kill-team was sent after, she had been pursuing two, and only one of them was now on the floor being tended to before he bled out. And while Yuto Kigai, the former bureaucrat that was the money man for the Ise heretics, would be a treasure trove of intelligence after he was properly interrogated, the real prize had seemingly eluded them. When had Kanoe Sumeragi peeled off from Kigai? During those few moments when the enemy hacker had managed to compromise their communications? Hopefully the other team that went after the Sakurazukamori did not lose their quarry as well. And if the other kill teams going after the heretic hacker was able to nail their target, then it might not matter that Kanoe escaped, her entire support network would be effectively gutted and she herself would run out of places to hide soon enough.
Compared to Eden Vital, the Ise priesthood was a much smaller ecclesiastical order, its formal ordained members numbering barely a hundred in contrast to the Order's thousands of invested clergy. When one included the lay members that served as the auxiliary staff for the various Ise functions, the total number was substantially higher, but even so, it was certainly the case that the Ise priesthood was a small, close-knit community. That closeness therefore made it all the more personal for those that survived the bloodletting that signaled the beginning of the Ise schism, instilling upon those left behind a strong desire for vengeance. It was in pursuit of this vengeance that Ise insisted at least some of their representatives accompanied the Eden Vital kill-teams deployed to capture or otherwise neutralize Kanoe Sumeragi and her compatriots, and why that contingent of sohei had insisted on going after the Sakurazukamori when the high value targets split up.
Whether the heretic hacker was too preoccupied trying to cover for Kanoe or the Sakurazukamori was simply considered expendable, the sohei-militant team was not waylaid like Kallen had been. They did not take too long to close the distance and with how they were kitted out, Seishirou was hardly expected to be a substantial challenge to neutralize at range. As an assassin, the Sakurazukamori was poorly suited to head-on fights, usually relying on stealth and ambushes to pull off his hits, or even more esoteric methods as demonstrated with his usage of proxies. Of course, as an assassin, that meant Seishirou held no hesitation about fighting dirty, whatever circumstances he may find himself in.
"Hideki!"
The panicked cry of a woman could be heard, alongside the sobs of a child. When the kill-team caught sight of the scene, more than a few grimaces were to be had. In his arms, the Sakurazukamori had grabbed hold of a small boy, no more than a few years old at most, and had positioned said boy in a way as to shield his center of mass. The kill-team certainly could try shooting Seishirou, but that was almost certainly to kill the hostage as well.
"Surround him," the lead sohei ordered. "Do not let him escape."
That was easier said than done with Seishirou still ahead of them, but the kill-team did not let that minor detail dissuade them. Even as they spread out, they kept moving with haste so as to not let the Sakurazukamori outpace them. Seishirou was of course also not prepared to be very obliging to his pursuers, turning about and opening fire. The soldiers he was specifically firing at took cover or otherwise momentarily slowed their advance, but the others pressed onward. The pistol Seishirou was using was probably not loaded with armor piercing rounds, so their body armor likely could have stopped any hits, but they still needed to at least pay heed to the threat it represented. There was also no telling what the man might do to endanger his hostage if they pressed too hard.
"Captain Shiro, what should we do?" one of the sohei asked his superior.
"Keep closing in," Kamui responded. "We will try to avoid harming the hostage, but the absolute priority is to ensure the Sakurazukamori does not escape."
A harsh choice, but a necessary one. The death of the boy would certainly be a tragedy, but the Sakurazukamori escaping to continue wreaking havoc upon Japan could easily turn the number of deaths into a genuine, visible statistic. Still, being faced with the choice was a challenge in and of itself.
"Keep him distracted," one of the Eden Vital battle sisters said to Kamui. "I will flank him."
Kamui gave a simple nod, though as far as he could tell the sister was already gone. Taking aim, he fired off a quick burst, not directly at the assassin but close enough to get his attention, or so he hoped. Unfortunately, Seishirou's reputation was well justified and the man outright ignored the shots.
"Damn him," Kamui swore, breaking from cover to give further chase.
"Stop, you bastard!" another soldier called out.
"Please, stop!" the mother's own cry could be heard amidst the screaming.
Seishirou did slow, but only long enough to turn about and open fire. His own aim was definitely to kill, as evidenced by one of the sohei tumbling over. The soldier rolled over back into cover, his armor having taken most of it, but he would likely still be a bit before he could rejoin the pursuit.
"All units cease fire!"
To their credit, the kill-team's members did not succumb to any temptations to get off one more shot or the like. That was quite fortunate, as a moment later something crashed into Seishirou, throwing him completely off balance and lose his grip on the child. A something that Kamui recognized to be the Eden Vital sister that had been accompanying his team. How exactly Oldrin managed to get so close without anyone noticing likely had something to do with her abilities, but all Kamui cared about for the moment was that Seishirou was both down and the hostage out of his grasp. He still did not take a shot though, the others were too close for him to risk it just yet.
Oldrin on the other hand had no such reason for hesitation. Her sidearm was already drawn and she made to tap the target. Seishirou however seemed to sense the danger he was present in and rolled about, in the direction of the boy.
"No you don't!"
At this range there was no way for the battle sister to miss, and the two shots she fired nailed Seishirou squarely in the back. That, alongside the hefty kick Oldrin landed in his side, was enough to give even the Sakurazukamori pause. At least long enough for Oldrin to hurry over and scoop up the boy to get him out of danger. That cleared the way for the other soldiers to aim their weapons at Seishirou with the intention to kill, but they did not open fire, yet. If the Sakurazukamori could be taken alive, there was quite a bit that they might be able to learn from and about him. The two rounds Oldrin had put into him weren't going to be immediately fatal, he should survive long enough for interrogation.
"Ha."
Of course, that was if Seishirou himself did not do something to force their hand.
"Hahahahaha!"
Somehow, despite his wounds, Seishirou rose. A slight trickle of blood stained his clothes from where he was shot, but the man seemed to treat the wound as little more than a minor inconvenience. That or perhaps the adrenaline was keeping him from feeling its full effects. Seishirou's gaze suddenly fell upon one of the approaching sohei.
"Die."
The next moment blood erupted from the man's chest. Not from the word uttered by the Sakurazukamori, but from the hand that was plunged through his flesh. The man gave a gasping wheeze before his body went limp.
"Open fire!"
The sohei in Seishirou's clutches was already dead, but it still took a moment for some of the others to overcome their instinctive aversion to firing at one of their own. Kamui was not one of them, going full-auto with his rifle and riddling his target with bullets. A few hit, but Seishirou managed to move with inhuman speed, one step ahead of where his attackers were aiming. He was upon another soldier, an Eden Vital militant this time, and punched through the man's body, armor and all, splashing himself once more in blood. And then his gaze fell upon Kamui.
The sohei actually managed to block Seishirou's fist, presenting his rifle at just the right angle to shield himself from the punch. The weapon itself actually snapped, but now Kamui could see that Seishirou's own hand was little more than a bloody pulp. The Sakurazukamori might be able to push his body to inhuman lengths, but there was still a toll to be paid by that body. Kicking out, Kamui tried to strike at Seishirou's shin, but the man was able to step back just far enough to avoid the blow. That bought Kamui some time of his own, time he used to draw his combat knife.
The maniacal smirk on Seishirou's face remained as he charged back into the melee, trying to cave in Kamui's chest with his bare hands while the sohei tried to find an opening to plunge his own blade into the assassin. Any thought of trying to take Seishirou in alive was now gone, Kamui was focused solely on killing the Sakurazukamori and surviving himself. The two spung about each other, punches and slashes being exchanged without either quite managing to land a blow. No one else tried to intervene, his comrades not wanting to break Kamui's focus. At least, no one that Kamui or Seishirou noticed. As such it took both men completely by surprise when suddenly Seishirou's arm went flying. For a limb being cleaved off, there was surprisingly little blood. Indeed, there was a smokey, even burnt stump where Seishirou's arm had been severed. Finally the Sakurazukamori came to a halt, too surprised to continue his onslaught. The one who dismembered him hardly needed such an opening to land the finishing blow, but Oldrin certainly was not one to disregard such an opportunity either. A slight hum could be heard from the sword she was now wielding as it cleaved cleanly through the Sakurazukamori's neck. Again, nary a drop of blood flowed from the cut. All the same, the assassin's head was now as separated from his body as his arm. And off in the distance, subdued booms could be heard before lights started going out across the streets.
Amongst Lelouch's direct attendants, in addition to being skilled knightmare operators, some were also qualified on several of the vehicles in Eden Vital's inventory. Specifically, Lucretia and Sancia knew how to fly both the fixed wing shuttles and the helicopters the Order used, while Alice knew her way around the latter and Anya the former. Dalque on the other hand focused primarily on the ground vehicles, while Kallen was still in the process of getting qualified on her selections. For today's operation, the kill-teams had relied upon actual pilots to get them to their target location. With the appearance of the Ise heretical hacker however, a need now arose to deploy a second team, in a manner that would be capable of defeating the diversion and obfuscation that hacker was capable of.
For this reason, Alice was in the pilot's seat of one of the helicopters taking the second wave towards their target. Despite the enemy hacker's efforts, the combined efforts of Lucretia and Sancia had managed to overcome the interference and backtrack the source of the cyberattack. Now it was a race against time to get to the enemy's location before they could flee, a task that they could not rely on their usual electronic aides to help accomplish. Those instruments were at present not showing any indications of being compromised, but the Order was not going to take any chances, with all of the helicopters basically running silent with all external radio communications off. And with her direct telepathic link to Lucretia, whose mapping remained accurate, Alice could fly to the exact location the older girl directed without any concern for interference. A second helicopter had Anya in the copilot seat helping navigate, while much further away a third helicopter with Dalque was moving to join them after accomplishing a mission of its own.
"Two minutes out," Alice announced, a message that was likewise repeated by Anya and Dalque.
No sign of any anti-air, but expect opposition to breaching, Lucretia warned over the telepathic link. Power and communication links have already been down for five minutes.
One thing Eden Vital had learned about the Ise hacker was that she was heavily reliant on external electronics to do her work. If that equipment was disabled, or otherwise cut off from the wider internet, her reach became effectively nil. The Order had considered a variety of options for how to do just that, ranging from firing an electromagnetic pulse weapon to simply shutting down parts of the electrical grid. The former was ultimately discarded due to the lack of time to prep a weapon and deploy it in a way that wouldn't face countermeasures trying to send it off target. The latter had proven to also take some doing, with the Order actually resorting to sending Dalque and her helicopter to blow up a transformer with their weapons. As inconvenient as the side effects of that was going to be, taking down the core cadre of the Ise heretics had been deemed important enough to pay that cost.
Of course, if the heretics were at all competent, they likely had some sort of on-site backup that would allow them to operate at least some of their equipment. How much good said equipment would be for fending off the incoming strike teams would remain to be seen however.
"At drop point, go, go, go!"
While the other Eden Vital soldiers deployed via ziplines, Alice actually opened the door to her seat and dropped down without further ado. Granted the drop was not that high relatively speaking, but without augments any normal human would have been easily incapacitated. Alice on the other hand nimbly landed and bounced and was ready to go a moment later. In fact, she was outright gone now, dashing away towards her own objective.
The remaining strike team members coalesced around Dalque, while Anya remained in her copper as it actually peeled away after disgorging its passengers. Throughout all this Lucretia and Sancia continued issuing orders as they formulated a plan to assault the heretic stronghold.
Armed sentries on second and fourth floor, Lucretia reported, information that Dalque verbally passed onto the troops accompanying her. A total of fifty-six people detected in the building proper, but it is unclear how many are aligned with the heretics.
That uncertainty was a major reason why Eden Vital hadn't elected to just drop a missile on the building, that and the possibility, however minute, of maybe capturing some useful intelligence.
"Fifty-six people is a lot to get under control with just our numbers, Sister," one of the Eden Vital soldiers remarked, "and that's assuming not all of them are hostile."
There was quite a bit of truth to that, as the three helicopters had only been able to bring about thirty soldiers total. Going up against a potentially numerical superior opponent dug into a defensive position was never going to be easy. If the need arose to also distinguish between potential noncombatants, things could very quickly go from bad to much, much worse.
"Alice and Anya will be working their magic," Dalque said. "We just need to be in position to storm the place once they give the signal."
Some distance away, Anya had also exited her helicopter while hefting a large anti-material rifle. While Lucretia had not been able to immediately identify everyone that might be a hostile, she still had managed to pick out enough suspects to provide a handy list of targets. The necessity of the anti-material rifle came down to the distances Anya would be shooting from, and the need to break through potentially several layers of walls to hit some of them.
In position, Anya informed her sisters. Opening fire.
If one was obliged to name a difference between a machinegun and an anti-material rifle, an entirely accurate answer would be the rate of fire, for the rifle in Anya's hands now fired the same caliber of bullets as that of the Britannian military's standard issue heavy machinegun and therefore was capable of the same magnitude, if not volume, of destruction. Despite being over a kilometer out, the shots fired from her rifle had absolutely no difficulty punching right through the walls and windows between Anya and her targets as the girl began methodically picking them off one by one. The heretics already knew they were likely to be coming under attack, as evidenced by a few already armed and lying in wait.
As those initial guards fell, the reaction of the other building occupants served to quickly separate the noncombatants from the active hostiles. The former panicked and quickly sought to find some sort of shelter or cover to protect themselves from whatever was blowing holes through the walls, while the other panicked and made for weapons to protect themselves from whatever was blowing holes through the walls. The former was more successful in their endeavor, as Anya certainly had no real desire to shoot noncombatants. The latter simply added themselves to the list of targets she meticulously and mercilessly cut down.
Objective found, neutralizing, this time Alice reported in.
As expected, the heretics did have backup power for their headquarters. Even with Sancia's help, Lucretia had only been able to get a vague sense as to where those backups might be, hence Alice had been forced to perform a manual search. Thanks to her superspeed however she was able to check the various candidate sites with fair swiftness. The boom that sounded indicated another application of energetic solutions to Eden Vital's tactical problems today.
Interference from Ise heretics has stopped, Lucretia first mentally announced, then, "switching back to radio communications."
A mental sigh could be felt from Anya before she mostly withdrew her telepathic connections. Linking so many people together and across such a vast distance was still extremely draining, not to mention her also needing to partake in the battle. Of course, her burden was simply shifted instead of being lifted entirely, as she looked through the scope for any more targets.
Back on the ground, the strike team advanced from their respective cover towards the building. No gunfire greeted them, the first tier of guards having already been neutralized by Anya's sniping. That allowed them to breech quickly and relatively silently, but once inside they slowed their pace to a more methodical one.
"Tripwire behind this door."
It was a caution that quickly proved warranted. Lucretia's mapping and Sancia's processing was able to identify the probably location of traps, but actually disarming them was still down to the individual skill of the soldiers.
"No hostiles behind this door," Dalque stated, "but we have an open door to our left and gunmen immediately beyond it. I want a flash and clear, chuck flashbangs right through that other door the moment you're through."
"Yes ma'am."
"Breach in three, two, one, go!"
Throwing grenades was arguably something of an art. Getting a grenade to go exactly where one wanted was not just a matter of skill but also, considering the explosive aftermath, an uncomfortable amount of luck. The soldiers in Eden Vital's service were by no means short of the standards one might find in any modern army, indeed they could even claim a certain elite caliber on top. Still, not even they could account for every possible contingency, as indicated by the flashbangs that bounced back after hitting the suddenly closing door.
"Bad flash!"
Dalque grunted in annoyance as the other soldiers all turned about to avoid getting blinded. Not at their actions of course, the reactions of her teammates were entirely correct. Her annoyance was instead directed at the Ise heretics who had precipitated this outcome. It was certainly clever, and lucky, on their part. For all the good that would do them. Dalque already had another flashbang in hand and she chucked it at, and then through, the door. The cries of surprise that sounded were much more satisfying as she kicked down what was left of the door to follow up.
Bereft of their expected advantage, the heretics began firing wildly in front of them. With the tight quarters, their shots were as liable to end up hurting one another as they were to actually hit the strike team, but with nothing to lose they let loose regardless. A round or two struck Dalque, but a combination of her body armor and her geass rendered them ineffectual. Her own response was very much the opposite as she swiftly gunned down the still disoriented heretics.
"Room cleared," Dalque announced. "Anyone else hurt?"
"Armor took it," one of the soldiers said with a grunt. "Should be fine otherwise though."
"Then we proceed," the girl declared.
"This is Zephyr," Alice said over the radio. "I've located the HVT, rendezvous on my position."
"Rodger dodger," Dalque responded cheerfully.
Hardly the most professional radio discipline, but that had little bearing on Dalque's effectiveness. As her team progressed further, they came upon not just targets that Anya had sniped but also a few rooms that were Alice's handiwork. It was after all quite hard to defend against someone moving faster than one's reflexes. The cowering non-combatants they encountered were also restrained, though otherwise the team left them in place. With the electronic hack neutralized, follow-up teams were already en route and could handle sorting through them to determine who needed to actually be taken into custody and who were otherwise innocent bystanders.
When they reached Alice's location, they found the girl standing in an otherwise empty room. Which made Alice's prior call-in technically accurate, the girl had after said she was where the HVT should have been, not where the HVT was, but that was not likely to matter much to their superiors.
"So, where she at?" Dalque said, looking around.
Alice rolled her eyes. "Obviously she already made a break for it. Probably was on her way out the moment Abacus was able to backtrack her position. The jamming was probably an automated process."
If there was someone Eden Vital really had wanted to take alive from amongst the Ise heresy's ranks, it was Satsuki Yatoji, the recipient of Ise's own prototype neuro-link interface. As the person likely responsible for hiding the heresy from the authorities, being able to interrogate her would have yielded an absolute treasure trove of intelligence that would have let the Order completely shut down any lingering cells. With her gone however, they would need to make do with whatever piecemeal bits of data they could salvage from the systems here, assuming Satsuki had not completely slagged them on her way out.
"Aww, I don't think Legate's going to be very happy," Dalque noted. "Especially not with Sirius also losing her target."
Or rather one of her targets, as capturing Yuto alive was still likely to yield some useful intel. While incomplete, today's operation remained a resounding victory for Eden Vital and the true Ise. The nerve center of the Ise heresy in Japan had been crushed, along with the principal supports. Without these, even with her escape Kanoe would be hard pressed to mount any serious threat hereafter. Now all Eden Vital needed to do was root out the heretical contractors suspected to be in Japan and they would achieve more or less a clean sweep, and thereby take one step closer to final victory.
End of Chapter 55
I wasn't expecting this battle to take up an entire chapter. Arguably I should have. Assuming my plans for the next two chapters' scenes don't run over as well, we should be moving into R1 endgame. There are however going to be several very complicated scenes, and combined with work, I'm not sure how long they will take.
Ultimately, the rate at which I can churn out chapters all comes down to time. All of my current stories have a certain level of complexity to them, which is what I think attracts the readership that I have. Dealing with that complexity takes time, and I have other priorities and responsibilities that ultimately take precedence. Based on my current RL responsibilities, I don't think I'll be able to focus on more than one story at a time, which arguably makes it something of a mistake on my part to have spun off so many such stories at once. I do intend to try to finish all of them, but well, that is likely to be a while. I may try to get at least one chapter out for one of the other stories once the R1 arc is finished, but that's the most I can promise until Meridian itself is done-done.