"How did it go again…?" Hifumi pondered as she knelt down and unfolded the tripod, placing the instrument in the sand. Sensei had mentioned something along the lines of deploy, uncap, activate… or was it uncap, activate, deploy? Or… the other way around?
Hifumi bit her lip anxiously. She really should have asked for another demonstration when Sensei was showing her how to set this thing up. But she couldn't help it; she could barely keep up with Sensei and Ayane as they discussed instrument calibrations… or something like that. Hifumi just nodded her head along with them and acted like she understood. She had no idea that the saying "fake it 'til you make it" would come back to bite her so quickly.
It made her wonder why she was assigned to do this anyway, as opposed to Ayane. Hifumi supposed she could think of at least one reason; Ayane was needed as technical support for Abydos in the field. This desert did seem like it'd be really easy to get lost in even with GPS, so it made sense that they needed someone on-call to guide them if necessary. Hifumi didn't like it, but she understood.
But that didn't explain the presence of Hifumi's… escort.
Hifumi yelped as an explosion went off in the near distance, punctuated by the gunfire and the pained screams of what she assumed were Kaiser's PMC.
The Trinity student winced. Her current company didn't exactly make it easier to concentrate.
When Sensei introduced her to Wakamo, Hifumi thought that she was just another student - average, just like her. Sure, she was really pretty, but in terms of personality, Wakamo was quiet - shy, even - in Sensei's presence. Her infatuation with him was obvious as day, so obvious that even one as unskilled in matters of romance as Hifumi could pick up on it. So Hifumi had naturally come to the conclusion that Sensei paired her with Wakamo because, as two unassuming students, they were prime choices for a mission that required subtlety above all.
More gunfire rang out, followed by the mad cackling of Wakamo and the terrified cries of her victims.
But Hifumi was wrong. Oh, so wrong.
This girl was terrifying.
Hifumi didn't know what Hyakkiyako students (or at least she assumed Wakamo was one due to the way she dressed) learned in school, but she was fairly certain that it did not involve this level of bloodthirstiness. Hifumi may as well have forgotten her gun at home, and nothing would've changed - her "mission" thus far largely consisted of following around Wakamo as she carved a swath of destruction across the northwestern side of the Abydos desert.
An explosion went off in the background, and just like that her surroundings quieted. Was the fighting over?
The harsh glare of the sun subsided as it suddenly became nighttime.
Oh, wait, that couldn't be right. It was barely past noon.
Hifumi tentatively craned her head upward to see Wakamo oppressively looming over her as she balanced her wicked bayoneted rifle over her shoulders. The Hyakkiyako student blotted out the sun, the resultant shadow stretching outward from the masked student and completely enveloping Hifumi in its ominous embrace. Given the climate the Trinity student thought she would have welcomed the shade, but she found that heat stroke just might've been a more preferable outcome to… this.
"Um… Wakamo-san?" Hifumi said nervously.
"..."
"Er… hello?"
"..."
"Uh…" Hifumi tried to ignore her and go about her task, but to her chagrin, found that she couldn't.
Is she really just going to stand there menacingly the whole time…?
Hifumi gulped as she attempted to gather her wits.
Well, Wakamo had effortlessly thrashed everyone they'd come across. And even though she could do it in a heartbeat, she hadn't mauled Hifumi yet.
Yet being the keyword.
…Okay, that didn't help at all.
Deep breaths, deep breaths.
Wakamo was an ally, and if Hifumi was being entirely honest, a rather effective one. Though Hifumi was, when it came down to it, a student - and thus didn't shy away from combat when it was needed - she wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to head into warzones. So having Wakamo around was even a bit reassuring, in a way.
The pit in her stomach lessened as she swallowed her fear.
Besides, it's not like this was the first time she's dealt with scary situations.
Like missing the annual Momo Friends parade in Shiratori City. That was a pretty dreadful thought. Running into the president of the Justice Task Force could be super scary too, but she was a comforting kind of scary? Hifumi found it hard to put into words.
Once she had put things in perspective, Hifumi found the situation much less daunting. After all, Wakamo was in contact with Sensei, she couldn't be a bad person at all!
Now that she found herself able to refocus even under the very intent scrutiny of her companion, Hifumi began fiddling with the contraption once more.
The contraption was a domelike device with an attached boxlike thingy, propped up by a small tripod. Attached to it were several small black devices, something Sensei called sensor modules? One of the things Hifumi faintly recalled was Ayane mentioning the devices being some kind of motion tracking thingamabob based on a fusion of technology from both Kivotos and Sensei's homeland. They were explaining how it worked but that was around the time that Sensei and Ayane lost her. Hifumi wasn't ashamed to admit that science wasn't her strong suit in school.
While she was searching for the on button, Hifumi flipped a switch on one of the modules by mistake, causing the sensor module to begin blinking a green light as parts of the domed device began to rotate and emanate a soft whir.
That meant that it was transmitting! Er… probably.
Hifumi picked herself up off the sand, dusting off her skirt. It wasn't what she usually wore, since Sensei told her to dress differently than normal for the sake of concealing her identity, but she still didn't want to get it dirty. Clothes didn't come cheap, and as a double whammy, they cut into her Momo Friends merch budget.
"What's your relationship with Sensei?" Wakamo suddenly asked, breaking the silence.
"…Come again?"
"Your relationship. With Sensei," Wakamo clarified, in a patient tone of voice that somehow terrified Hifumi more than when the fox-eared student was rampaging.
"Oh…uh…"
Relationship? She meant like, how they get along, right?
Hifumi pictured Sensei in her head. She'd only seen his face once or twice but it was rather easy to remember one of the only teachers in the city.
Well…
He could be real rough around the edges… and mean to Abydos' enemies… and he often said and did things that confused her… and he was prone to calling Peroro-sama by a really weird name all the time…
But still! He was an adult! And they always knew better and acted in the interests of their juniors!
Right?
Now that she had gathered her thoughts, Hifumi opened her mouth to give her opinion to a waiting Wakamo.
"He seems nice?"
"Nice…?" Despite the compliment to Sensei, Wakamo seemed almost… offended? "Is that really all you have to say about Sensei?"
I thought she was mad about my relationship with Sensei! How did she flip this around and basically tell me I'm not being nice enough?!
Hifumi racked her brain for something better to say while trying not to wither under the overbearing Hyakkiyako student's aura.
It wasn't until Hifumi really thought about Wakamo's words that she paused. What was her relationship with Sensei, anyway?
Sensei was a strange person. He really liked guns. He could be pretty fidgety. Sensei really hated staying put. He also had some odd mannerisms and he could be really frightening sometimes. And the way he talked about Kaiser made it seem like he didn't care much for bullies, which Hifumi found was one of her favorite aspects.
It suddenly made more sense why he acted the way he did.
He was aggressive because his students were in a rough spot, not because he went out of his way to hurt others. Just seeing the way he treated his students from Abydos, especially Shiroko, cemented this idea in her mind - he was just caring for them in his own admittedly scary way.
"He cares for his students a lot, I think," Hifumi said a bit more confidently.
"Cares for his students…" Wakamo looked down at the ground. "Yes… he does, doesn't he? Even if they don't deserve it, he cares all the same…" The way she said that sounded thoughtful, almost introspective.
"Well, I don't know about deserving it, but he's definitely not the type to ignore his students."
"I suppose you're right…" the other student quietly said. It was strange - it was almost as if she was a different person just then. Like she had returned to the demure Hyakkiyako student who was happiest around Sensei.
"Wakamo-san…" Despite her trepidation, Hifumi found herself tenderly smiling at her companion as they finally found common ground.
"Faust," Wakamo sternly said out of nowhere.
"Y-yes?" Hifumi timidly replied. She thought they were having a moment…
"I don't care if you're the mastermind that is feared throughout every criminal enterprise. If I find out you're seducing my Sensei to get him to do your bidding…" She bent down to leer face-to-face at Hifumi, her mask almost touching Hifumi's makeshift disguise. "Not even Vikki and Vance will be able to save you from me."
…What?
"Um…" It took Hifumi a few seconds to process what Wakamo had said and realize that she was well and truly at a loss for words. "Noted?"
Hifumi didn't think she was capable of getting anyone to do her bidding, much less Sensei. And what was that part about seducing?! There was no way Sensei would even find a normal girl like her appealing…
For once, Hifumi was glad for the paper bag as heat rushed to her cheeks. Fortunately, Wakamo didn't seem to notice as she scooped up the bag containing the other sensor module whatchamacallits and slung them over her shoulder. They were quite heavy, so Hifumi couldn't help carry them if she tried.
"Well then, let us be off-'' One of Wakamo's ears twitched, and the Hyakkiyako student turned her head towards the horizon.
Was it more Kaiser people? Now that Hifumi was finished setting up the device in this area, she could help Wakamo fight off any enemies they encountered. Not that Wakamo really needed the help, but it was only the polite thing to do.
With that in mind, Hifumi brought up her Necessity, readying the rifle for the moment she saw Kaiser's camouflage motif.
Hifumi's eyes widened as she saw three Crusader tanks, their grinding treads forming indents in the sand as they rolled into view. But there was something very off with them. For one, their armor was painted black, and was decorated with crudely drawn skulls on their sides. Once Hifumi squinted her eyes, she could make out multiple figures sitting on top of the tanks. These students were dressed in black, and atop their heads were helmets that looked awfully like…
Oh, no… The Helmet Gang?! Were they hired by Kaiser again?!
"Wakamo-san, we need to-" she urgently said as she aimed down the sights to acquire a target, then stopped once she realized that her very powerful companion who could dispatch those thugs with ease wasn't doing anything.
"...Wakamo-san?" Hifumi repeated, dread beginning to fill her heart.
She wasn't fighting them.
Hifumi's mind worked overtime to comprehend this scenario. Was Wakamo working together with the Helmet Gang? If so, they couldn't be up to any good. But that would mean Sensei was wrong about Wakamo from the start!
This wasn't part of the plan!
I have to alert Sensei! Hifumi thought, as she frantically fished out her phone from her pocket and navigated to MomoTalk, only to blanch once she found that she had no signal.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" One of the helmeted students, probably the leader going by the way she carried herself, stood up and hopped off the Crusader she sat on. She swaggered over to the pair, a black pump-action shotgun balanced over one shoulder. It was only when the gangster stopped in front of them that she realized the helmeted student's attention was on Hifumi and not Wakamo. "Hey, you," she said accusingly.
"M-me?!"
"Yeah, you. I've got a bone to pick with you."
"I-I think you must have the wrong person…" Hifumi nervously replied.
"Nah…" the gangster leader said menacingly. "You're just the person I wanted to see."
Unbridled panic welled up in the Trinity student as the gangster stopped right in front of her while Wakamo made no move to help.
Was this about taking revenge for their friends at the bank? Did Wakamo sell her out?
Hifumi realized it was the situation back at the black market, when she was being chased by thugs, all over again, except now neither Sensei nor Hoshino were here to save her. If they tried to hold Hifumi for ransom, she was doomed. There's nobody who'd be willing to pay a ransom for somebody like her…
The menacing-looking student reached out toward Hifumi. Hifumi flinched and screwed her eyes shut in anticipation of the pain from gunfire or a punch or something equally painful…
…Only to look up in confusion as the gangster put her hand on Hifumi's shoulder. "Well, I just wanna say that I'm a huge fan."
Hifumi's heart stopped beating for a moment. "…Eh?"
"You're Faust, aren't you? You have to be, that helmet doesn't lie!"
"H-helmet?" Hifumi asked, now more confused than anything. "What helmet?"
"Duh! The one you're wearing right now!" The gangster pointed at Hifumi's face as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Hifumi reached up to her face and touched the "helmet" the gangster was referring to.
She thinks this taiyaki bag… is a helmet?
…
…
Is… is she right in the head?
Realizing that this worked in her favor, Hifumi awkwardly changed the topic in hopes that the gangster wouldn't spontaneously come to her senses and realize that Hifumi's helmet was, in fact, a taiyaki bag. "So, um… you know about me?"
"'Course I have! Everybody who's anybody has heard of you!" the student said jovially. "The way you marched right into the black market and tore up the entire place, trashing everyone you came across! You totally showed everyone at the black market about truly not giving a damn about the law, consequences be damned. While wearing some rad helmets, no less!"
"Wait, weren't some of the people there your friends?" Hifumi disbelievingly asked, remembering that there were some Helmet Gangsters among the black market guards. "You aren't mad?"
"Mad? About those losers? Nah." The gangster snorted. "They knew as much as the rest of us that if you work for a place like the black market, you're bound to get your ass whooped eventually. Stuff like that comes with the territory."
"Oh…" Hifumi said, once again at a loss for words.
The leader of the gangsters present lifted her helmet, allowing Hifumi to see her features. She was surprisingly pretty, in a rough-and-tumble sort of way. She had long, flowing red hair and sharp red eyes. She nodded at the pair, adopting a devious grin which showed off a set of razor-sharp teeth. "Komakaze Rabu, officer of the Helmet Gang. The Fox over here called in a favor, so here we are."
"Wakamo-san?" Hifumi said, facing the masked student, who said nothing.
"Though she didn't say nothing about having Faust here," Rabu said. "Hey Faust, don't suppose Vikki and Vance are here too, are they?"
Hifumi felt a bead of sweat form on her forehead as she rushed to improvise an excuse. "Vance is, um, on vacation."
"On vacation," Rabu repeated flatly.
"Y-yeah! He's, uh…" Inspiration came to Hifumi when she remembered what the Abydos students were discussing with Sensei that one time. "Gambling! Several districts away. A-and Vikki went with him, because even a cold-hearted outlaw like Vance can't bear to leave his partner in crime out of the fold!"
Gambling? Cold-hearted outlaw? Stupid, stupid, stupid… There's no way she'll believe that… Hifumi muttered a quick apology to Sensei for… for… well, she didn't know what for, only that she was sorry.
Rabu looked briefly dumbfounded before smirking and shaking her head, as if hearing about the exploits of an old friend. "Hah. Breaking the bank in more ways than one, huh? I like it."
…That worked?
Hifumi breathed a sigh of relief as Rabu turned away from her and addressed Wakamo. "Hey, just so we're clear, we're even now, Fox. Got it? Now me and the rest of the gang officially don't owe you jack."
"Yes, yes," Wakamo said dismissively. "Just do your jobs and be good little decoys, hm?"
Wait, decoys?
Rabu either didn't notice Wakamo's dismissive words or didn't care as she climbed aboard the foremost Crusader.
"Hop on!" Rabu said, beckoning Hifumi to join her.
"U-um…" Biting her lip, Hifumi looked to her companion for support, only to find that Wakamo had already nimbly boarded one of the other Crusaders, where she perched broodily.
Well, if they're on our side now, there shouldn't be any problems… I hope.
Hifumi began to climb aboard, yelping when Rabu grabbed her arm and helped her up. Once she was situated, the Crusader began to move, and Rabu chuckled sinisterly as she looked to the horizon.
"With the Fox of Calamity and the legendary Faust, there's nobody who'd be able to beat us!"
Wait, Fox of Calamity? As in, one of those Seven Prisoners people that even the General Student Council fears? The one that was about to blow up Schale before Sensei stepped in? That Fox of Calamity?!
Hifumi whimpered as she was somehow swept up with some very dangerous people. Again.
"I knew I should've stayed at home today…"
Now, I like to think I'm not a judgmental person. I've seen plenty of weird practices in my time. Participated in some, too. Things like hunting down the Ghost of She while tripping on Sacred Datura or engaging in long sessions of percolations with Dala were but a few of said practices. Cultures are different everywhere you go, and it was thanks to these experiences I had developed something of a high tolerance for outlandish shit. It was a [Wild Wasteland], after all, and it was inevitable that not everything was going to make sense.
Though cooking in the heart of a literal warzone - while getting shot at, no less - was a new one.
"I made sandwiches!" Fuuka called out cheerily to every ally on the battlefield amidst the cacophony of explosions and gunfire.
I wasn't quite sure when she had gotten around to setting up a portable grill for cooking and a picnic blanket for assembling sandwiches, but it seemed that Fuuka, being a student, was nonetheless prone to eccentricities like her peers. And here I thought she was one of the only sane ones around here.
However, odd as it was to host a lunch break in the middle of a battlefield, odd behavior along those lines wasn't unprecedented, psychologically speaking. People do tend to default to habitual behaviors when under extreme duress. Since we'd been fighting nonstop for the past couple of hours, it was entirely possible that cooking was Fuuka's way of coping with the stress of the situation.
But that didn't explain why nearly everyone, even most of the Prefect Team, abandoned their positions to partake in the lunch break.
"Mmh, this is really good!" Nonomi complimented as she lowered her minigun to have a quick bite.
"You're too kind…" Fuuka said bashfully.
"Extra pointf fer being easfy to eat," Shiroko said through a mouthful of sandwich, before giving Fuuka a thumbs up.
"It's… not bad," Iori said plainly, the energetic swishing of her demonic tail telling a different story. Behind her, several of her fellow Prefect Team members waited in their line for their turns, seemingly uncaring that they were still getting shot at.
See, I knew by now that students treated gunfights like fun social activities as opposed to deadly ones. I also recognized that standards of education in Kivotos were leaps and bounds ahead of the Wasteland's, since unless you were born in the heart of NCR or Followers territory you wouldn't have access to any education beyond whatever local schoolhouse your community saw fit to maintain.
Even with all this in mind, seeing such a baffling turn of events, I couldn't help but wonder if these students were, as the Vit-o-matic Vigor Tester would put it, a bunch of "Sub-bricks".
"Sensei," Hina said as she joined me at the frontline, the only person aside from myself and ED-E who did not partake in lunchtime.
"Ah, Hina. The only other bastion of common sense in this strange land," I greeted in relief at the sight of her.
Hina shot me a look which I interpreted as her way of saying 'what the hell are you talking about'. She tilted her head in the direction of the others. "Sensei, you should have some food too. I can cover the front for you," Hina offered, as if interrupting a gunfight to grab lunch was a perfectly normal thing to do.
I felt my stomach drop. So she saw this as normal as well. The only thing keeping Hina from joining them was the fact that Hina wanted me to go in her place. While nice of her, this meant that Gehenna's head prefect was just as crazy as everyone else here.
I just don't get it. What makes this food special enough that it would make nearly everyone… abandon…
"Ahh, that hit the spot!" Hoshino exclaimed happily, rearming herself. "Only thing that would make this better is an afternoon nap, but I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too, huh?" With that, she joined up with me and Hina, assisting in repelling Kaiser forces with renewed vigor.
It wasn't just Hoshino. After their impromptu break, every student who had attended rejoined the battle, all sharing one thing in common - all of the accumulated scratches, bruises, and other damage they had sustained over hours of fighting gradually healed until the injuries were completely gone.
The food HEALS YOU?! I thought as my eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets.
Yeah, there were certain food articles in the Wasteland which possessed extremely mild healing properties. Said food articles were mostly ones with pharmaceutically active ingredients like those present in Nuka-Cola (minus the radioactive compounds). But this was on a whole other level - and while the healing rate was not as fast as a Stimpak's, at least from what I observed, these students' injuries were nonetheless disappearing right before my eyes. Fuuka had to have done something to the food to give it these properties.
There was only one plausible explanation.
Chems!
In an instant, my assessment of Fuuka was turned on its head. I truly did not take her for that type of person.
Just what kind of drugs was she loading her food with to give it regenerative properties? Must be made from compounds not detectable on standard drug screens, since I didn't notice on the very first dish she cooked for me. My Pip-Boy or digestive implants would surely have detected whatever she laced the food with.
Perhaps this food was specially prepared for battle, I realized. I'd have to run some tests on that food later to determine what chems she used. Who knows, maybe I could improve the Stimpak formula using what I learned.
With nearly every student having returned to the fray, Fuuka tilted her head as she addressed me. "Sensei, you don't want any? I still have some left over."
"... No thanks, I'm not… injured," I awkwardly replied to the unexpected chem dealer. "But pack me some to-go, please."
I needed some of that. For science.
Fuuka smiled and nodded as she began cleaning up shop, stowing away her portable grill and wrapping up leftovers. Before long, she had packed everything away into a satchel and returned to the fight.
That little impromptu lunchtime caught me by surprise, but it couldn't have happened at a better moment. Against an enemy who easily numbered within the hundreds, our operation soon turned into an endurance battle. It was easy enough to tell that the fighting was beginning to take its toll on our teams, with only Shiroko, Hoshino, and Hina not showing any signs of slowing down. But thanks to Fuuka, our teams would be able to keep going for some time longer.
As for me, while I had nothing to worry about in a test of [Endurance], the issue was with the electric core. Several hours of nonstop combat and V.A.T.S. usage were really doing a number on the electric core, which was now in its thirties in terms of power supply. It would appear I overestimated how much mileage I'd get out of a power core that ran on electricity.
Additionally, since the Tesla-Beaton Prototype and Sprtel-Wood 9700 both used the same type of ammunition, my supply of electron charge packs was draining much faster than was optimal. It was due to this I found myself falling back on using the MF Hyperbreeder Alpha to finish off singular opponents while saving Sprtel-Wood 9700 for clusters of enemies and the Tesla-Beaton Prototype for vehicles.
On the flip side, thanks to the Prefect Team's fire support, the Shittim Chest still had about sixty percent charge left in it. Iori was very efficient when it came to dispatching more serious threats on a timely basis - her modified Kar98k had to have been loaded with armor-piercing rounds, judging from the way her shots seemed to pierce right through tank armor and helicopter cockpits.
Meanwhile, Hina was a force to be reckoned with all on her own. In contrast with Iori, who focused on taking out high-priority targets, Hina primarily focused on crowd control, and to great effect. Using quick, clean bursts from her machine gun, the head prefect dispatched enemies as quickly as they arrived - this was made even more impressive by the fact that she was essentially hip firing the whole time, as if aiming down the sights was too much of a hassle. To be able to retain pinpoint hipfire accuracy for an extended period without tiring… Not only was Hina quite skilled with [Guns], but she had quite the uncanny core strength for someone of her stature.
Though oddly enough, I never witnessed her reload even once. Instead…
As if on cue, Hina paused firing and raised her gun, pointing its barrel to the sky. She pulled a handle on the upper portion of her gun, causing faint licks of purple energy to disperse from its barrel, as if to cool it down. After a few seconds, she returned to firing, downing a series of drones with ease.
Taking a moment to reload my own weapon, I spared a glance at hers. At first I thought it was just a modified MG42 with some pretty lights, but was it possible that thing was an energy weapon? It was leaving unmistakeable bullet-shaped contours in her targets, but her shots also carried with them a purple contrail that reminded me of Serika's ability from back when she was ambushed. A unique type of microfusion breeder, perhaps?
"Hey, guys?" Nonomi said, pulling me from my thoughts. "Is it just me, or have they stopped coming?"
"It's not just you," Shiroko replied, finishing off a few drones. Her eyes panned over the battlefield as the enemy was quickly routed. Kaiser's PMC seemed keen on relying on the strategy of overwhelming their opponent with sheer numbers, so as soon as their reinforcements stopped arriving, their forces' lack of staying power was made readily apparent.
"Did we…" Serika gasped, taking a moment to catch her breath, the last traces of blue fire dissipating from her person as her ability expired. "Did we win?"
"I don't think so," Iori commented, her eyes narrowing as she pointed straight ahead. "They're probably holing up in that base up ahead."
The other students followed Iori's gesture. North of our location was one of Kaiser's many military installations. It was a bit bigger than the one I visited on my first trip with Wakamo, as this one looked like it was roughly larger than Nellis Air Force Base. Similarly, this base was also walled off. However…
"...The gate is open," Hina observed, frowning thoughtfully. "They're either inviting us in to negotiate, or…"
"It's a trap," Hoshino finished, humming. She looked up at Ayane's drone, which circled in the sky above us. "It'd be nice if we could just send in a drone to get a bird's-eye view of the place."
"Can't reach Ayane. I think they got jammers around here," Shiroko said. "The drone's autopilot can handle basics like first aid and spotting, but reconnaissance is off the table until Ayane regains connection."
Iori hissed in irritation as she tried to contact Ako and failed. "We're in the same boat here. Blind."
"How do you think we should go about this, Sensei?" Hina asked. The rest of the students present turned to me and awaited my response.
The possibility of it being a trap was blindingly obvious. Perhaps Kaiser finally realized that throwing endless troops at us wouldn't work. Since that was the case, it'd make sense that they'd lead us into a place where they had the home-field advantage.
Question is, do we need to pursue them further?
Team 1, which was our current group, entered from the south. Problem Solver 68, Team 2, entered from the west from the neighboring district and made their way to the central base to cripple vital Kaiser infrastructure. Team 3 followed the same route we took then split from us, with the intent of cutting off reinforcements from the east then regrouping with Team 2. Wakamo and Hifumi entered from the same direction as Team 2 but circled north to set up a perimeter of motion sensors that'd allow us to remotely monitor activity in the desert.
Given that several hours had elapsed since we started, it was highly probable that Teams 2 and 3 were finished with Kaiser's central base. However, since we lost communications with them very early in this operation, we had no way of checking up on them or coordinating a rendezvous.
Same thing goes for Team 4 - while Ayane had confirmed that one of the motion sensors had gone online before we lost connection with her, Team 4's current status was up in the air. At the very least, I knew Team 4 would be safe, physically speaking - I couldn't conceive of a way that Wakamo could be taken out by whatever fodder Kaiser sent her way. Hifumi was just there to keep Wakamo on track with the objective - since I wasn't there, Wakamo needed somebody with a good head on their shoulders to reel her in from getting too carried away. It helped that Wakamo was aware of Faust's reputation, so that gave Hifumi some much-needed pull with her.
Taking all this into account, we had some leeway as to how we should approach this situation. Ultimately, I decided that whatever option does the most damage in the shortest amount of time would be the best course of action - not only would taking out another one of their bases further weaken their foothold in the area, but Kaiser also had their doors literally open for us. Might as well deal with this place now while the opportunity presented itself, just in case Kaiser decided to make this place a holdout for their army in the future.
"We're going in," I said. "Be ready to break through in case we have to make a run for it."
Our fighting force voiced their collective acknowledgement, taking a brief moment to prepare. Ammunition was checked, magazines were loaded, fallen Kaiser bots were looted (in the case of Shiroko and I), and cooking supplies were readied.
And thankfully, contrary to what Iori said, we weren't completely blind.
"ED-E." I nodded at the Eyebot, and he nodded back comprehendingly, being well-accustomed to serving as my eyes and ears.
Our teams approached the open gate. The base, upon first glance, looked deserted. Propped up around the interior of the base were temporary fortifications in the form of tents, which were reinforced in anticipation of Abydos' harsh sandstorms. As we entered, ED-E briefly took the lead and hovered close to the ground.
A few of ED-E's antennae twitched as he emitted a series of high-frequency radio waves into the ground. When he was finished, ED-E returned to shoulder level. "{Short beeping}."
"No mines or explosives," I translated for the group. Good to know that Kaiser wasn't trying to pull a Boulder City on us.
Iori raised an eyebrow skeptically. "How'd you get that from just a few beeps?"
"Like learning a language. Practice."
We gingerly stepped through the open gate, and immediately ED-E shuddered, his antennae splaying out in every direction.
My HUD compass promptly updated as it synced with ED-E's [Enhanced Sensors]. "Hmm…"
"Sensei? What is it?" Shiroko asked.
Taking one moment to count the number of amber blips on my compass, I replied, "Hundred-plus individuals scattered in every direction. Non-hostile."
Several team members looked around in panic before they heard the last thing I said.
"Wait, non-hostile?" Serika asked. "Why would they be non-hostile?"
Movement out of the corner of my eye halted my reply to her question as one of the various tent's flaps opened.
Emerging was a robot who tended to the heavyset side. The robot was unarmed and was quite tall, standing only a few inches shorter than me in full Power Armor. The robot didn't look like any of the mass-produced automata we'd been fighting, leading me to believe this was one of the sentient types that populated Kivotos. He was clad in a cleanly pressed suit and a black lounge jacket with black pants.
He matched Hoshino's description to a tee; so this was one of Kaiser's executives, huh?
Just the person I've been looking for.
Joining his side were two shield-bearing automata, presumably bodyguards. They were not the only ones. More armed guards came crawling out of the woodwork like Radroaches. They stood at the ready on the ground while several others were perched on the ramparts and on guard towers. They stiffly held their firearms but made no gestures of hostility just yet.
"Sensei…" Fuuka said in worry at the fact we were now completely surrounded. Most of the Foreclosure Task Force and Prefect Team shared her apprehension, save for Hoshino, who remained neutral, and Hina, who appeared almost indifferent. Immediately, the two teams spread out to face the surrounding forces in a defensive formation while I stared down the enemy leader.
The robot and his bodyguards calmly approached us, then stopped just a few meters shy of our group. He took one glance at the symbol on my armor, then greeted me almost derisively.
"So you're that teacher who's been giving my employees so much trouble," he said. "I should've known you had something to do with riling up those Abydos children."
"Given the situation they've been put into, can you really blame them?" I replied, doing my best to keep my tone even.
"I absolutely can," he assured. "After all, this is private property you're trespassing on. Their petty qualms aside, we have every right to defend ourselves on our land."
"Petty?!" Serika seethed, red in the face.
"...Your land?" Shiroko glared at him. The two students, who looked about ready to threaten violence on the robot, were stopped when Hoshino held out an arm in front of them.
"Oh? You're Abydos' vice president, aren't you?" he asked. "Smart move to back down. It seems you know the value of restraint… unlike your former president, at least."
Hoshino twitched at the taunt but said nothing.
"Even worse, you've even roped Gehenna's Prefect Team into your little scheme." The robot snorted haughtily as he regarded the uniforms on the Gehenna students. "I wonder what our business partners in the Pandemonium Society would think once they found out the Prefect Team was traipsing around in private property several districts away."
Hina showed nearly no sign that she was bothered by this subtle threat, but somehow I felt she was not pleased in the slightest. Iori gnashed her teeth angrily but held her tongue.
This guy's a real piece of work, I can already feel it. Still, for the sake of maintaining an appearance of impartiality as a representative of Schale, I begrudgingly resisted the ever-growing urge to commit unspeakable violence on him.
"And who are you supposed to be?" I asked. Diplomacy first, then violence, if necessary.
I was really, really hoping it was necessary.
"Why, I am the chief executive of Kaiser Corporation, and the CEO and director of its PMC," he stated, dusting off his coat arrogantly. "And I am the one Abydos owes its debt to - its creditor."
"Creditor…?" I pondered. If this robot wasn't talking out his ass, then that meant that many of these students' financial woes could be directly traced to him.
It was wishful thinking, but I still couldn't help but wonder if the debt would go away if this guy were to… disappear.
"That's right," the Director said. "I oversee Kaiser's continued operation in Abydos district. Thus, the choice of appropriate repercussions of your actions falls to me. Perhaps I would've been willing to let these children off the hook with a slap on the wrist. However…" The Director's tone turned to one of fury. "Millions of yen worth in damages to our army, not to mention the damage sustained to our drilling rig, supply caches, cutting-age equipment, and comm centers…"
Several of our members perked up as the Director unknowingly divulged news of the other teams' success.
The Director continued his tirade. "You've set our operations here back by a year, at the very least. These losses have gone beyond what can simply be dismissed as collateral. As such, I'm afraid the issue of remuneration will once again fall to Abydos." If he had a mouth capable of forming human expressions, I'm certain the Director would've smiled maliciously. "How does a few extra figures to your debt sound?"
The students he was referring to collectively paled.
On second thought, do we really need diplomacy? This guy is a piece of shit.
It was one thing to rightfully be owed a sum of money by somebody who especially needed it, but this only proved that Kaiser was maliciously leveraging Abydos' debt knowing that they couldn't afford to pay it off.
"Extra figures…?" Nonomi murmured. "But that's.."
"Highly improbable that you'd be able to pay it off within your lifetimes? Perhaps," the Director said. "But you should've thought about that before you trampled into your creditor's land, guns blazing. You students really should leave adults to their business." The Director glanced at me. "Well, most adults, anyway. I cannot even fathom why this one would bother with such a decrepit district."
"What are you saying?" Nonomi said, a rare look of genuine irritation on her face.
"Why, the truth," he continued. "Surely you are not holding out hope that this adult is helping you out of the kindness of his heart. After all…" the Director sneered. "If this one truly cared about you, he wouldn't have led you on this asinine little field trip."
The general disposition among the FTF was one of quiet anger… until the Director's last sentence. The students immediately became furious.
"How dare you-" Shiroko raised her voice uncharacteristically loudly, before I chose that moment to intervene.
"So what you're saying is, these students and I have committed a crime," I said, to the utter confusion of my team.
"Have you even been paying attention this whole time, Sensei? Or is that helmet soundproof?" The Director shook his head. "Of course that's what I'm saying."
"Then why haven't you pursued legal action toward us?"
"...What?"
"If this is your property and we're trespassing, call Valkyrie. After all, when a district oversteps its bounds legally, aren't you supposed to go to the police first?"
The Director scoffed. "Why should we be obligated to seek out aid from Valkyrie? If we have the means to mete out justice on our terms, why shouldn't we?"
"It would save you resources, for one," I pointed out. "Why spend money on a private army defending this large a territory from just a few students, when you can leave it to other forces to take the financial hit for you?"
The Director stared at me for one moment before bursting into roaring laughter, throwing us all off. "You truly believe we've amassed these forces for you and a handful of students?" He shook his head. "You think too highly of yourself, Sensei."
"Do I, now?" I asked, secretly taking note of the possibly useful information that he just divulged. "To me it looks like this 'handful of students' was mopping the floor with everything you sent their way. Whole lotta good this PMC did you, huh?"
The robot merely growled in response.
"Since it sure as hell looks like you can't hold this place on your own by force, your other avenue is to petition the powers that be for assistance," I continued. "Except… you haven't. Instead of choosing the easy and painless route, your first response is to continue to leverage these students' debt against them, despite there not being any foreseeable payoff." I crossed my arms, regarding the Director levelly as the two factions of students watched. "Really. If you're going to pretend to care about the law, at least try to be upfront about your own shady business dealings. Don't use legalities as a shield; it makes you look like an asshat."
"Shady business?" he asked, pointedly ignoring my latter sentence. "My, but what kind of accusations are you slinging about now, Sensei? Is this how the Federal Investigation Club operates - touting baseless claims and using them as impetus to invade others' land? Should I add slander to your growing list of offenses here?"
"Who said anything about it being baseless?"
His tone turned grave. "...Explain."
"Say, for instance, if we happened to obtain evidence that Kaiser Corporation was responsible for hiring gangs to harass the students of Abydos, and using the black market to equip said gangs." I tilted my head unassumingly. "That would make for a pretty good reason for these students to try and take back their land, right? It'd amount to self-defense, basically."
"You have no such proof. We didn't do anything of the sort."
"You sure about that?" I casually shot back.
He clicked his tongue irritably. "Then the burden of proof lies with you. Why don't you show me what you've found? Perhaps I can edify you as to how you've misunderstood the situation."
"No thanks." Showing him whatever proof we had would give Kaiser time to run damage control, thereby reducing the evidence's effectiveness. I had every intent of holding onto the evidence for as long as it could be useful. Ultimately, the best blackmail material was one that never needed to be used.
"Why not? Surely, if whatever you found is enough to justify this invasion, then it must be substantial enough to-"
"Don't you get it?" I strode up to him so we could speak face-to-face. "It's fair play."
He scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous. How is that fair play?"
"I thought it'd be obvious to you. After all, you're used to lording things over people, aren't you?" I paused. "Although 'lording' may be too nice a word. No, you'd rather strongarm these students into submission. Force them into working their asses off to pay off a debt they had nothing to do with, knowing full well they won't ever succeed within their lifetimes combined. Hire thugs to evict them from their school building, the only thing they have to their names except their guns and the clothes on their backs. Take away everything they own, then take away the ground underneath their feet, just because you can. And you still have the balls to taunt them about it, pretending to have the moral high ground all the while?" It was my turn to sneer. "People like you are a dime a dozen, but you never fail to make me sick."
"Sensei…" Shiroko murmured, surprised by my outburst.
"You…" the Director seethed.
"Like I said, fair play. All I'm doing is leveling the playing field for them, since no one else would," I said, glad to have gotten that off my chest. "With all that said and done, I only have one thing left to say to you." I took one more step toward him, and he took one step back reflexively. "Get the hell out of this district. You and your troops."
"...Are you serious?" the Director replied. "You allude to some dodgy 'proof' of our wrongdoing, and you want us to abandon the property that we rightfully own?!"
"Yeah, so? What are you gonna do? Call the police? We've been over why you won't do that. And even if you do, I've got friends in Valkyrie," I bluffed. It went without saying that Kirino and Fubuki weren't exactly high on the totem pole, but the best bluffs are ones that are technically true. "Oh, and if you even think about touching the debt? Let's just say that Kaiser's dirty laundry will be circulating on social media for a long time."
That got his attention. "Just what do you think that'd accomplish?"
"A PR disaster, for starters," I responded. Social media is a truly powerful thing. It's a shame that most people here seemed to take it for granted. "Just imagine the headlines: 'megacorporation hires thugs to harass five kids and tries to make them homeless'. Can't wait to see what your PR team will have to spin to justify yourselves to an entire population of pissed-off schoolgirls with guns."
"That's… only if you actually had something usable against us," he argued. "Making unsubstantiated claims against us is just as likely to backfire on Schale if you're found to be in the wrong."
"Can you take that risk?" I goaded, before taking yet another approach. "On the off chance that I do hold incriminating evidence, you'll be implicated yourself. It's your ass on the line if your company takes a hit, and you can bet you'll be the scapegoat in that situation."
The Director paused to consider that scenario, mulling over his choices.
"Try to push us out or retreat - makes no difference to me. But know this." I shrugged. "I've got your number, asshole. Maybe you've managed to grift your way into positions of power and influence so far without anyone getting in your way. But now? The moment you try to overstep your bounds, technically legal or not, you can bet your ass I'll be there waiting."
"...Hmph." Apparently having reached a decision, his dismissive tone returned. "Will you, now?"
The Director raised a hand, and immediately every PMC member encircling us brandished their guns at our group. Multiple sentry guns extended from metallic fixtures in the ground and also pointed at us threateningly. Our group tightened their grips on their guns, with many students disengaging their safeties.
"This farce has gone on for long enough," he spat. "Allow me to offer a proposition of my own, Sensei. Come with us quietly, and your students can go free. If you don't, I can't promise their safety."
Shiroko growled - actually growled. "As if we'd trust you with Sensei."
Sounds of agreement echoed through our ranks.
Whistling as I readied my weapon, I said, "You heard them. They don't like you or your deal."
"Last chance. I'd advise you to be careful about your next move, Sensei," he slowly warned. "We outnumber you twenty to one."
"How about you eat shit?"
The Director shook his head in disbelief then turned to his troops. "Eliminate them. However, the President has taken interest in Sensei, so do take care to keep Sensei alive if you can-"
Seeing as he was giving us just the excuse we needed to retaliate in full force, I chose to goad him further.
"The tried and true strategy of throwing endless waves of trash at us, huh?" I snarked. "You're a regular tactical genius, you know that? You hoping that a few hundred more bots are gonna do the trick?"
I would have paid caps to see this guy's pissy facial expression, were he to have facial expressions at all. "Do not think for a second that what you see here is all we have at our disposal," the Director growled.
"Well I sure hope this isn't everything."
"Oh?" he said confusedly. "And why is that?"
"I don't want them to miss what's about to happen," I threatened, no longer bothering to hide the malice in my voice. "Because I'm going to rip you in half and use your guts to make a toaster."
A moment of stunned silence reigned amongst everyone present. A chill ran down the Director's spine as he shuddered, as did several other students present. Even Hina was momentarily caught off guard by the sudden [Terrifying Presence].
"W-what are you idiots waiting for?!" the Director shouted fearfully at the soldiers surrounding us before he turned tail to flee. "Take them out!"
The battlefield turned to cacophony as the students focused on defending themselves from enemies in every direction. Any further speech I promptly tuned out as I activated a dose of Implant GRX and lunged forward, my focus exclusively on one target - the fleeing Director. Stowing Sprtel-Wood to free up my hands, I pursued the Director at an inhuman speed, only slightly slowed by the T-45d's outdated servomotors. I had nearly caught up to him when one of his shield bodyguards intercepted me, barely managing to raise his shield in time and activate its force field.
Using my momentum, I slammed my fist into the robot's shield, causing the robot to stagger and his barrier to deform slightly from the force of the powered strike. Capitalizing on the robot's lapse in defense, I withdrew a short metallic rod and flipped a switch on its underside. The capacitors on one of the far ends of the rod powered up, causing the hardlight blade of the Proton Throwing Axe to buzz to life with a bluish hue. Wielding the weapon in my left hand like a tomahawk, I brought the blade of the miniature axe down on the robot's head. The hardlight blade, optimized for use against synthetic components, easily sliced into the bot's head before getting caught midway, with the added bonus of overloading its circuits. As I wrenched the melee weapon from its head, the robot crumpled to the floor, its body convulsing wildly.
With one of the Director's bodyguards dealt with, I withdrew the MF Hyperbreeder Alpha from a compartment on my thigh and turned to the other bodyguard, only to find that ED-E and Fuuka had succeeded in downing the robot. Nodding, I turned back to the direction in which the PMC Director fled, only to find that a cadre of five other shield bots arrived to block my path.
Implant GRX wore off just as I dealt with the cadre with the help of my companions. However, the PMC Director had already disappeared behind his small army, which had rearranged itself to cover his escape as well as encircle our fighting force. Very faintly, I heard the panicked shout of the Director as he fled further behind enemy lines.
"Release the prototype!"
Just then, the earth began to shake, throwing many of our ranks off balance as sand shifted around us. Several PMC automata stepped back as a hole opened up in the ground, revealing a large metallic hatch. The hatch slowly slid open, and a massive shape was suddenly elevated into view by a hexagonal platform.
Hoshino's eyes focused on the object and her eyes widened. "Oh, crud."
"Arona, what in God's name is that thing?" I slowly asked as the platform became level with the ground around it and the object it carried became fully visible.
The object was a hulking bipedal robot which stood over twenty feet tall. Its stout arms were outfitted with tri-barrel miniguns on each of their ends. Mounted on its back was a massive cannon not unlike that of a tank, but it was obvious from its design that this thing did not fire normal tank shells. The mech's entire front was covered in thick armor plating which easily repelled shots from a few of the Prefect Team members who tried taking shots at the new threat.
"That's a Goliath! I didn't know Kaiser had been trying to manufacture them as well!" Arona exclaimed, before frantically warning, "Sensei, whatever you do, don't let it lock onto you with its main gun-"
Arona's warning was interrupted by a loud metallic creaking. The Goliath's knees locked into place as it hunched over, exposing the large cannon on its back as it rotated into position - aimed right at me.
Shit.
"Scatter!" I shouted to everyone behind me. Immediately, ED-E zipped off while Fuuka froze, her legs not seeming to agree on whether to stay with me or flee like I ordered. Two Prefect Team members adjacent to us didn't hear me over the cracks of their own gunfire, and held their ground.
Warning klaxons blared and holographic warning messages encircled the robot. The Goliath's main gun began to glow brightly as it prepared to fire.
I quickly brought up Sprtel-Wood and shifted to the side, trying to throw off the mech's aim as well as attempting to disable the Goliath's main gun by targeting it in V.A.T.S.
Both of these actions were to no avail. The Goliath easily adjusted its cannon to account for my movement. I barely got one burst of laser fire off against the Goliath's cannon before it fired, the damage Sprtel-Wood 9700 dealt not being nearly enough to cause the Goliath to abort its launch.
I could only watch helplessly in slowed V.A.T.S. time as the massive shell sailed in my direction and impacted me square on the chestplate.
The world lit up.
"…sei. Sensei!"
When I opened my eyes, I could hardly see a thing. Beyond the flickering of my HUD, the rest of the world was obscured by a massive dust cloud that obscured every inch of the environment around me. It was only after the ringing in my ears subsided that I realized someone was calling for me.
"Sensei!" Arona pleaded. "Can you hear me?!"
"Arona?" I rasped out, coughing reflexively from the dispersed force coursing through me. I became aware of a throbbing pain throughout my body. "Damage report."
"Thank goodness you're alright." Arona sighed in relief. "Vitals are A-OK on my end, but I just wanted to make sure. As for hardware, I tried redirecting the shock from the blast away from the torso, so the right arm servomotors took some damage as a result…"
Easily fixable, I thought as I continued to get my bearings.
"...But…" Arona hesitated. "Ah, Sensei… I'm sorry to say this, but Sprtel-chan didn't make it…"
"What?!" I looked around in the dust cloud where I had fallen to one knee from the impact. I didn't have to look very far - at my feet was the Gatling Laser, which had seen better days. Sprtel-Wood's barrel was bent inward and the area around its handle was mangled beyond recognition.
I cursed under my breath. That's gonna be an absolute bitch to repair. Not to mention recalibrate. Hopefully the main fiber optic wasn't damaged, or else I'd be forced to purchase another high-quality crystal to replace it. I could already hear Yuuka's screams of frustration.
The dust cleared enough for me to make out more of my surroundings. I found myself at the epicenter of a veritable crater a few feet deep. Scattered around the crater were the students who were close to me when we got blown up - I counted two Prefect Team members, and one additional Gehenna student.
"Fuuka?" I called out, the lack of an answer unnerving me. My eyes came into focus, and I soon registered the sight of my companion, who was out cold. The faintest hints of blood trickled from her forehead.
I felt my blood boil, like I had just taken a shot of Psycho.
The plan was originally to threaten the Director enough to scare him into fleeing, leaving his forces leaderless and putting a dent in their morale.
But now, I think I'm going to make good on that threat.
I made to get up when a voice loudly shouted from the chaos of the continuing battle around us.
"Serika! I've got the front for now!" Hoshino urgently ordered. "Get some support on Sensei! Shiroko, Nonomi, follow me!"
Mere seconds later, a pair of hands pulled on my arm.
"C'mon, Sensei. We need to get you outta here…" Serika said worriedly as she tugged on my arm. When I didn't budge she began to strain as she pulled harder, trying to move me. "Ghhh… You fake teacher, you've really put on some weight, haven't you…"
"Let me help," another voice said. Hina offered a hand to me, concern etched on her features. ED-E floated next to her, watching our exchange. "Sensei, are you alright? Can you stand?"
By now, I'd more or less recovered from the impact. I was surprised, even a bit begrudgingly impressed by the attack. Judging from the size of this crater, the payload from the Goliath's main gun had to have been at least half as strong as a Mini Nuke. If I didn't have such a ludicrously powerful barrier protecting me, that blast would've done more than just stun me. It was strong enough to make a student bleed, after all.
"Yeah. Was caught off guard a bit," I replied, accepting her hand. With one pull of her hand, I was back on my feet.
Hina tilted her head at me curiously. Before she could say anything, however, something vibrant and pink appeared in my field of view, contrasting with the drab environment.
"Are you sure? That was quite a blast there…" a student in front of me said worriedly.
"Yes, I'm sure-" I paused. "Wait, Serina?"
"Yes, Sensei! Sumi Serina, reporting for Schale duty!" The Trinity student dutifully saluted with a smile.
"How'd you find us? Ayane manage to reach you?"
"No, I had a feeling you were in trouble."
Hina, Serika, and I stared at the nurse.
"You had a feeling," Hina repeated flatly.
"Yes!"
Yet another student joined us, and she looked just as nonplussed as we did. "I don't know how Serina was able to locate you without a GPS, and frankly, I'm not even sure I want to know," Yuuka, who had finally caught up with the stalker nurse, said. "But thanks to Serina, we're here now, and ready to be deployed wherever you may need us." Yuuka's gaze passed over ED-E, whom she raised an eyebrow at, but she didn't comment, prudently saving that discussion for later.
Chinatsu had also returned and immediately joined up with the Prefect Team's support unit, leading the team's first aid efforts. I couldn't see Shun, but then again, snipers weren't exactly supposed to have much of a presence to begin with. She was likely providing fire support for the rest of our team from a suitable vantage point.
The members of Schale were mostly accounted for. But if they were here, then where was Team 2?
The dust had completely subsided, and the rest of the battlefield became visible once again.
The Goliath's main gun was retracted and the mech stood from its hunched position, its twin minigun arms spinning up as it attempted to gun down Hoshino.
Hoshino, the most serious I had ever seen her, was practically running circles around the Goliath with her shield stowed, peppering the giant mech with shotgun shells and generally being a nuisance. In one swift motion she slid underneath the Goliath and shot upwards between its legs. At the end of her slide she ended up behind the Goliath, forcing it to turn around to face her, which incidentally gave our team an opportunity to attack its less armored back. Nonomi and a particularly pissed-off-looking Shiroko capitalized on this opportunity, using gunfire and grenades to whittle away at the giant's rear armor.
Eventually the Goliath realized the futility of trying to wear Hoshino down with minigun fire, and instead chose to try and use one of its stout robotic arms to try and bludgeon her. Its massive arm fell upon the student like a hammer. Hoshino quickly unfolded Iron Horus and blocked the melee attack, producing a resounding clang as the two clashed. Hoshino slid back slightly from the force of the Goliath's attack, her heels digging into the dry earth… before, in a surprising show of [Strength], she started to push back against the twenty-foot tall automaton.
Just then, a familiar shockwave washed over a portion of the battlefield, causing the automata and PMC students caught in its radius to lose their wits and run away in fear… right into several sets of well-placed mines.
That fear attack works on robots too, huh? I thought as Kayoko and Mutsuki came into view.
"Kufufu…" Mutsuki giggled. "Not a bad combination, huh, Kayoko-chan?"
"Surprised you can still find enjoyment in small-scale stuff like this, especially after what you were saying earlier," Kayoko remarked, bearing an amused smirk.
"Pftt. Just because I said that nothing can top the fireworks from earlier doesn't mean you can't enjoy the little things! Sometimes, you gotta stop and smell the roses!" Mutsuki took a whiff of the air, sighing contentedly.
"Smells like gunpowder to me," Kayoko murmured.
Something plinked against the leg of the Goliath. Hoshino's eyes widened as the glowing projectile stuck to its point of impact, and she hopped backward just in time to avoid the large explosion that consumed the Goliath.
Aru triumphantly stood above a rocky edifice, lowering her sniper rifle. "Haruka!" Aru gestured toward the Goliath, whose posture became lopsided due to the substantial damage to its leg.
"Yes, Aru-sama!" Taking advantage of the Goliath's unbalancedness, Haruka quickly climbed aboard the giant mech and onto its back. She then used the butt of her shotgun to repeatedly bash the rear armor of the Goliath until something metallic gave way. With the Goliath's innards exposed, Haruka fired multiple shotgun blasts into the Goliath's back, causing sparks and bits of machinery to fly out. After a few moments, the machine regained its footing. It swung its body wildly, until the momentum finally succeeded in dislodging Haruka from its back. The poor Gehenna student was flung face-first into Aru, and the two ended up in a heap on the ground. Haruka profusely muttered tearful apologies to a dazed Aru.
Despite her current sad state of affairs, Haruka succeeded in doing a number on the giant mech's circuitry. The Goliath, now heavily damaged, twitched as several of its joints now sparked erratically, with some even catching aflame. The Goliath raised its twin miniguns, our team preparing to retaliate… when the Goliath suddenly raised one of its arms and smashed it into a nearby PMC automaton. Our team members watched in confusion as the Goliath began to attack friend and foe alike with melee and miniguns.
It's frenzied! I realized. Robots back home often had combat inhibitors located on their backs, which, once disabled forcefully or otherwise, caused the robot in question to go on an indiscriminate rampage until either the robot was destroyed or everything around it was dead. Even though robots here were fundamentally different from Wasteland robots, it seemed they shared something of an analogue in terms of their targeting parameter hardware location.
Either way, now was the time to finish this thing off, especially since I had no idea whether this Goliath had access to self-repair subroutines.
I slipped the destroyed Sprtel-Wood 9700 onto my back, hearing the magnets lock it into place, then retrieved the (thankfully) intact Tesla-Beaton Prototype. I activated V.A.T.S. and queued up two shots aimed at the Goliath's head, then let it rip.
The first burst of electricity rocketed toward the target and diffused into the robot on impact, frying up its circuits something fierce but still failing to finish off the Goliath.
The second burst… never came.
The strum of a disembodied guitar echoed across the battlefield, causing nearly everyone present to stop and look for its source, just like last time.
With a flourish of his overcoat, the Mysterious Stranger spontaneously materialized right in front of Aru and Haruka, scaring the poor girls shitless. With one hand, he aimed his signature weapon straight at his target.
I watched with a giddy smile as the first shot hit the Goliath on its midsection, the anomalously powerful shot completely obliterating the robot's chest armor. Serika's brain finally caught up with what her eyes were seeing and recognition dawned in her eyes as she remembered our benefactor from back then.
Hina's mouth was slightly agape as the second shot impacted the Goliath on its left arm, the blow tearing off the limb entirely, leaving only sparking circuitry and sputtering black lubricant in place of the limb. Iori, perhaps recognizing the Stranger from the uncannily accurate drawing that Hina showed me, pointed at him, her mouth beginning to form words.
Yuuka froze, her mind working overtime to process the impossibility of what she was seeing, as the third shot pulverized the leg that Aru damaged, causing the Goliath to fall onto the stump. Fuuka groggily picked her head up from where she was being treated by Chinatsu, and upon seeing what the fuss was about, dismissed it as a fever dream and put her head back down.
The fourth shot missed entirely, but Aru didn't seem to notice or even care, as she had recovered from her initial fright at the newcomer's sudden presence. Now, her gaze was transfixed on the Stranger's enigmatic form, her eyes gleaming with an excitement whose magnitude was only matched by the times she heard about the exploits of Texas Red.
The fifth shot pierced through the Goliath's head, and finally the robot slumped over and collapsed onto its front, its main cannon depowering. With his target annihilated, the Mysterious Stranger vanished with naught but the gentle strum of a guitar in his wake.
Well, that, and the absolute mayhem that followed once normal time resumed.
"Hey, you! Stop right there!" Iori shouted at the Stranger, only to realize she was shouting at nothing. "What the…? Where'd he go?!"
"...?" Hina blinked, her expression one of utter bafflement.
"That's him! That's the weirdo with a fedora from last time!" Serika pointed frantically. "I told you! You believe me now?"
"Hm…" Shiroko hummed perplexedly. "Guess you're not crazy after all."
"You thought I was crazy?!"
"Huh. You guys saw that too?" Hoshino rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, then took one more look at where the Stranger once stood. "So Oji-san wasn't just seeing things?"
"Aru-sama?" Haruka addressed her boss, who had gone deathly quiet. "A-are you alright?"
"That…" Aru started, her tone soon taking on one of excitement. "Was. So. COOL! Did you see that?! How that stranger just swooped in at our time of need, finished off the biggest threat around here, then vanished mysteriously?! He even has his own theme song!"
"Um…" Haruka was briefly taken aback before she adopted Aru's enthusiasm as her own. "Y-yeah! He's the picture-perfect outlaw!"
Aru turned to me, an enormous smile plastered on her face. "Sensei, he's a friend of yours, right? Maybe even your sidekick?!"
"How did he… or maybe…?" Yuuka repeatedly turned her head to where the Mysterious Stranger stood, then back to me, then back again, as if she were trying to form a connection somewhere.
"Don't give me that look. Wasn't me," I said.
"But… but…"
"I was standing here this whole time. Right, ED-E?"
"{Confirmatory beeping}." A pause. "{Amused beeping}."
"Oh, come on. Don't be like that. It's their first time - don't act like you weren't confused back then too."
The intensity of battle gradually returned as members from both sides remembered that we were supposed to be fighting. My eyesight panned over the chaos, looking for signs of my target.
After downing a set of drones, I addressed my AI passenger.
"Arona, can you get a bead on the Director?" I asked, having lost him amidst the commotion. Since I didn't have access to pre-War satellites anymore, tracking him remotely via my Pip-Boy was out of the question.
"With their jammers plus everything going on, I'm afraid not," Arona replied remorsefully. "But if I had to guess, I think he might be heading for the hangar northwest of here."
Now that she mentioned it, there was a small hangar for resupplying aircraft situated nearby, and since Team 2 had succeeded in sabotaging their main stronghold, there weren't many places left that could house aircraft capable of making a quick getaway. Between our current location and the hangar was an outpost which no doubt would be fortified to cover the Director's retreat, but we had no choice if we wanted to catch the bastard before he retreated.
"I'm going after the Director!" I yelled to the Abydos crew. "Give me some covering fire!"
"But, Sensei…" Nonomi started worriedly. "Didn't we talk about you going off on your own again?"
"That's why I'm letting you know right now!" I replied, trying my best not to let my irritation seep into my tone. I knew Nonomi was just looking out for me, but she also couldn't possibly have known about the situations I regularly got myself into in the Wasteland. It was precisely because of this I staunchly refused to be coddled and let them do all the heavy lifting for me. Even if these students ate bullets for breakfast.
"Then let us join you. We won't be a burden," Shiroko said, suddenly making her way to my side while downing a drone. "We'll make a break for it together."
Seeing as convincing her otherwise would take more time than I had, I chose not to argue. Instead I began looking for a weak point in the enemy's formation.
No dice, I thought, grimacing. Even with our own fighting forces bolstered, we still weren't clearing out the enemy quick enough to gain a meaningful foothold. I theorized that the Director was throwing every reserve he had to cover his own retreat. While we'd still outlast them at the rate we're going, that'd still give him the time he needed to escape.
Throwing caution to the wind, I decided we'd take the most straightforward route north. With Abydos with me, that'd make it easier to get through, though we still had our work cut out for us.
A relatively quiet yet authoritative voice cut through the air, and we turned to see Hina had joined us.
"You're going after the PMC's director, aren't you? If so, then there's no time to lose." Hina said, stepping in front of our group facing the northwest. "I'll clear the way for you, Sensei."
Interested, I asked, "You bring artillery or something?"
"Not exactly," the student replied, shaking her head in response. Hina looked to the encroaching enemy, then sighed in apparent resignation. "I didn't want to have to do this, but there's no other choice."
With a thunderous whipcrack that startled nearly all of us, Hina's wings suddenly unfurled and extended to their full width - more than half her height - as purple energy emanated from the student and swirled around her in a spiral. Her pupils narrowed into almost serpentine slits, and her eyes glowed ominously.
She raised her light machine gun, aiming down the sights vaguely in the enemy's direction. The purple highlights on her weapon gradually began to light up with an incandescence that rivaled even the Tesla-Beaton Prototype in intensity. Violet energy coalesced around the barrel of her weapon and crackled off its tip as the intensity reached its apex.
She pulled the trigger, and I finally realized why nobody in Gehenna was keen on crossing this person.
Her weapon roared, drowning out the rest of the battlefield. The shots she fired previously seemingly became galvanized with a logic-defying power, and began to split into multiple separate trajectories of violet contrails, like a Tri-Beam Laser Rifle but on a much wider and destructive scale. Our teams could only watch as the fifty strong enemy in front of us, despite their efforts to take cover or fight back, was overpowered and completely annihilated under the hailstorm of ethereal gunfire. Even vehicles, which briefly withstood the barrage thanks to their heavy armor, proved no match to the sustained barrage.
"HOLY SHIT!" I yelled, completely stupefied by Hina's display of power.
"Oi, oi. Trying to make us look bad?" Hoshino joked, scratching her cheek with an index finger while trying to hide her own amazement. "Well, it's kinda working."
From what I gathered thus far, most students were of average human strength, possessing varying skill in marksmanship. But recent events made it clear that a power disparity exists between most students and a few who ostensibly stand above the rest, metaphorically speaking.
Students like Wakamo and Hina were freakishly powerful, and judging by how Hoshino easily held her own against the Goliath in close quarters, I had suspicions that Hoshino was as well, and was simply hiding her true capabilities for whatever reason.
Perhaps being a high-ranking head of a school confers power to a student? That criterion would certainly apply to Hoshino and Hina, but unless Hyakkiyako's leadership was more screwed than I thought, Wakamo completely threw that theory out the window. Wakamo was a delinquent - basically one step from being a dropout - so that couldn't be the case. And now that I thought about it, Yuuka was an even more salient example - she's one of the leading officials of Millennium Science School, but the concentrated fire of a few dozen thugs was enough to wear her down.
Was there a pattern to this I wasn't seeing? Why was it that most students would rank no higher than a 5 in [Strength], yet others were clearly superhuman?
Hina's attack finally petered out after several seconds, and her wings retracted. With the enemy in front of us thinned out, she wordlessly nodded to us and returned to the fray.
"Hmph. It's over," Iori said knowingly.
"Hm? What's over?" Shun, who had joined Iori at her vantage point, asked.
"This fight. The Head Prefect is serious."
"Serious? You mean she wasn't taking the fight seriously until now?" Yuuka asked with a slight frown, leveraging an analytical gaze on the head prefect.
"Exactly."
"So, she could have done this the whole time and saved us the trouble of slogging through a literal army?" Serika asked, obviously irritated, with more than a small helping of newfound apprehension. "Why would she hold back in the first place?"
"If I may interject, I suspect it's because President Hina was holding out hope that matters could be resolved without escalating the situation." Ako's hologram whirred to life, though judging from its erratic flickering and frequent voice cutoffs the connection was tenuous at best. "She's always been quite insistent that we only use the exact amount of force necessary to complete a mission. That is, unless an extravagant display of force is exactly what is needed."
"It helps that she looks pretty pissed off. Guess that robot threatening to give Makoto another reason to make our lives even more miserable really put her in a bad mood," Iori said.
"Not to mention he tried to hurt Sensei," Aru added, tightening her grip on her rifle. "Problem Solver 68 won't forget this injustice."
"Neither will I," Shiroko said, to which she received nods of agreement from several others.
"Either way, we'll do what we always do when this happens," Iori continued.
"Oh? And what's that?" Yuuka asked.
"Cleanup duty," Iori replied, her gaze turning back to her boss. Hina was tearing through enemy ranks like it was a trifle. After disabling a tank with her uncanny purple gunfire, Hina dispatched a pair of automatons wielding rifles. Without even turning around, one of Hina's batlike wings expanded over a wide area behind her to block a barrage of rockets fired at her by a drone. Quickly, Iori took a knee and sniped the drone out of the air, then briefly turned back to us. "You should go while you have a chance. We'll take it from here."
I surveyed the battlefield one more time. Between Hina, the Prefect Team, Problem Solver 68, and the forces of Schale, taking care of the bulk of Kaiser's main force should be more than doable. My original company should be sufficient backup to assault the outpost on the way to the hangars, but there was one member yet unaccounted for…
Once I caught sight of Fuuka, who was a distance away getting bandaged by Chinatsu, I winced regretfully. She was conscious and looked to be recovering fast as a result of Chinatsu's help, but it was questionable as to whether she'd be in any condition to accompany us. In any case, it wouldn't feel right dragging her back into the thick of the fighting after taking a hit like that… even if it looked like she had just suffered the equivalent of a mild concussion from it. The two Prefect Team members who were also caught in the blast were already back on their feet, so it seemed that Fuuka really wasn't exaggerating about not being fit for combat. If I wanted to have her accompany me on missions in the future, I had to see about outfitting some proper armor for her.
As if sensing what I was thinking, Fuuka caught my eye from a distance. She smiled reassuringly and nodded.
Reluctantly, I nodded back and turned to leave, leading the waiting Abydos students and ED-E through the path Hina had carved for us.